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Cover of Circe by Madeline Miller

Circe

Madeline Miller

  • 404 pages · about 7 hours
  • First published 2018
  • 36 editions
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1 About this book

In the house of Helios, god of the sun and mightiest of the Titans, a daughter is born. But Circe is a strange child--not powerful, like her father, nor viciously alluring like her mother. Turning to the world of mortals for companionship, she discovers that she does possess power--the power of witchcraft, which can transform rivals into monsters and menace the gods themselves.

Threatened, Zeus banishes her to a deserted island, where she hones her occult craft, tames wild beasts and crosses paths with many of the most famous figures in all of mythology, including the Minotaur, Daedalus and his doomed son Icarus, the murderous Medea, and, of course, wily Odysseus.

But there is danger, too, for a woman who stands alone, and Circe unwittingly draws the wrath of both men and gods, ultimately finding herself pitted against one of the most terrifying and vengeful of the Olympians.

  • Fantasy
  • Mythology
  • Historical fiction
  • Fantasy, historical
  • Magic
  • Greek Mythology
  • Mythical Animals
  • Fairy tales, folk tales

2 What to expect

A retelling of Greek myth in the voice of Circe, the witch of the Odyssey, from her childhood among the gods through centuries of exile on her island. Familiar figures pass through, among them Daedalus, Medea and Odysseus, but the story is her own: finding her power, loneliness, motherhood and her growing feeling for mortals. The prose is lyrical and measured, the pace is episodic and slow in places, and it includes a sexual assault.

Good for readers who want: Greek mythology retold, a woman's point of view, and lyrical, unhurried prose.

3 About Madeline Miller

Born 1978

Madeline Miller (born July 24, 1978) is an American novelist, author of The Song of Achilles (2011) and Circe (2018). Miller spent ten years writing The Song of Achilles while she worked as a teacher of Latin and Greek. The novel tells the story of the love between the mythological figures Achilles and Patroclus; it won the Orange Prize for Fiction, making Miller the fourth debut novelist to win the prize.

Bio adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0)

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