Circe

Born to the sun god Helios and dismissed by her own family, Circe discovers a power the Olympians have reason to fear, and Madeline Miller gives the exiled witch of the Odyssey her own account. The novel follows Circe across centuries of banishment on Aiaia, where she learns the craft of herbs and spells, raises a child with no help and receives the visitors who shape her story, Odysseus among them. Miller writes from a background in classics, drawing on Homer, Ovid and Hesiod while keeping the narration close and plain-spoken. The result reads as a life rather than a myth cycle, measured out in loneliness, craft and slowly earned choice. Key things to know: • A first-person retelling that moves a minor Homeric figure to the centre • Familiar episodes of Greek myth seen from the island rather than the ship • Themes of exile, motherhood and the gap between divine power and human time • Written by the classicist behind The Song of Achilles Recommended for readers of mythological retellings, literary fiction and Greek classics, available at Boipoka.