Looking for Madeline Miller in conversation with Kazuo Ishiguro on Thursday, April 15, 2021? Click here for tickets.
“I thought: I cannot bear this world a moment longer. Then, child, make another.”
MADELINE MILLER, CIRCE
Classics scholar Madeline Miller appeared on eighteen Best Books of 2018 lists with her critically acclaimed and bestselling novel Circe, a feminist retelling of The Odyssey from the perspective of the banished goddess who turns men into pigs. Circe follows her prize-winning debut The Song of Achilles.
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. With unforgettably vivid characters, mesmerizing language and page-turning suspense, Circe is a triumph of storytelling, an intoxicating epic of family rivalry, palace intrigue, love and loss, as well as a celebration of indomitable female strength in a man’s world.
The Song of Achilles, her first novel, was awarded the 2012 Orange Prize for Fiction and was a New York Times Bestseller. It has been translated into over twenty-five languages. Her second novel, Circe, was an instant number 1 New York Times bestseller, and Shortlisted for the 2019 Women’s Prize for Fiction. Madeline’s essays have appeared in a number of publications including the Guardian, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Telegraph, Lapham’s Quarterly and NPR.org. She currently lives outside Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
More about Madeline Miller
The Guardian, April 2018
Circe by Madeline Miller review – myth, magic and single motherhood
Publisher’s Weekly, February 2018
It’s All Greek to Madeline Miller
Los Angeles Times, April 2018
Madeline Miller on ‘Circe’ and the staying power of myth
NPR, April 2018
‘Circe’ Gives The Witch Of The Odyssey A New Life
The New York Times, May 2018
Turning Circe Into a Good Witch by Claire Messud
The New York Times, April 2018
Circe, a Vilified Witch From Classical Mythology, Gets Her Own Epic
Madeline Miller’s Website
“Miller’s lush, gold-lit novel – told from the perspective of the witch whose name in Greek has echoes of a hawk and a weaver’s shuttle – paints another picture: of a fierce goddess who, yes, turns men into pigs, but only because they deserve it.”