Ulysses by James Joyce

Ulysses is a novel by the Irish author James Joyce and chronicles the passage of Leopold Bloom through Dublin during an ordinary day, 16 June 1904 (the day of James Joyce's first date with his future wife, Nora Barnacle).
Ulysses is divided into 18 chapters or "episodes". At first glance much of the book Ulysses may appear unstructured and chaotic; James Joyce once said that he had "put in so many enigmas and puzzles that it will keep the professors busy for centuries arguing over what I meant," which would earn the novel "immortality". The two schemata which Stuart Gilbert and Herbert Gorman released after publication to defend James Joyce from the obscenity accusations made the links to the Odyssey clear, and also explained the work's internal structure.
It is 8 a.m. Buck Mulligan, a boisterous medical student, calls Stephen Dedalus (a young writer encountered as the principal subject of A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man) up to the roof of the Sandycove Martello tower where they both live. There is tension between Stephen and Mulligan, stemming from a cruel remark Stephen has overheard Mulligan making about his recently deceased mother and from the fact that Mulligan has invited an English student, Haines, to stay with them. The three men eat breakfast and walk to the shore, where Mulligan demands from Stephen the key to the tower and a loan. Departing, Stephen declares that he will not return to the tower tonight, as Mulligan, the "usurper", has taken it over... (Summary by Wikipedia)