Why it’s essential
Imbued with the golden warmth of Perdita Weeks's voice, Madeline Miller's rich, remarkably human depiction of Circe rivals the deepest of literature’s great characters.
Featured in The Top 100 Audible Essentials, Fiction.
What is Circe about?
A complex and nuanced retelling of ancient myths, Circe is the story of the titular goddess, daughter of the sun god Helios and the sea nymph Perse. In Greek mythology, Circe is best known for her role in The Odyssey. When Odysseus lands on the island of Aiaia, where she lives as sorceress, she turns his men into pigs and keeps them captive for a year. Madeline Miller's reimagining is a breathtaking character study that follows Circe from her childhood among the gods through her exile to Aiaia, where she slowly grows into herself.
Editors review
I loved Madeline Miller's debut novel The Song of Achilles so much that I was hesitant to pick up Circe at first. The Song of Achilles is basically a perfect novel as far as I'm concerned; how could anything else Miller wrote even compare? But I was too curious not to give it a chance, so I read it a few months after it came out in 2018. I can still remember where I was when I finished it for the first time (sitting cross-legged on my bed, sobbing, late afternoon sunlight coming in through the windows). I knew, as I read the now-beloved last paragraph through my tears, that I had just read something that would become a part of my very being. This retelling of an ancient Greek myth about a powerful witch who brews potions and clashes with gods and monsters is still the truest book about what it feels like to be a human woman in this world that I know. This is the power of stories.
Three months after reading Circe for the first time, I listened to the audiobook. This is something I often do when I fall in love with a book—I reread it on audio as soon as possible, desperate to fall that much more deeply into its world. Listening to Perdita Weeks's extraordinary performance is when I truly fell in love with Circe. I have listened to it every year since. This is a ritual I cannot imagine my life without.
At heart, Circe is a story about becoming—becoming a woman, becoming a human, become a person who belongs to a place. While living in the halls of her father, she falls in love with a mortal, a fisherman named Glaucos. Devastated by his mortality, she uses for the first time the magic of transformation that will define much of her life. She turns him into a god, but instead of returning her love, he falls for a nymph, Scylla. Circe, in rage and jealousy, turns Scylla into a dreadful monster. For this, and for her use of witchcraft, she is exiled to the island of Aiaia. It is alone on this isolated island that her true work begins. Over centuries, she studies herb lore and witchcraft. She becomes powerful. She tangles with some of the age's greatest heroes, slyest gods, and deadliest monsters—Hermes, Daedalus, the Minotaur, and, of course, Odysseus.
If you love Greek mythology and mythology retellings, Circe should be a must-read, an easy masterpiece. It engages with old, familiar stories in new and exciting ways. It’s beautifully written and richly detailed. Its scope is epic—centuries pass as Circe wrestles with her own demons, now engaging with the world, now retreating from it. There is adventure, magic, and romance; grief and despair and betrayal; wonderful surprises.
But Circe is so much more than a retelling, and even if you've never given the Witch of Aiaia a second thought—even if you've never read The Odyssey and don't plan to—it's worth your time. It is a timeless story about the long, slow work of discovering who you are and what you want—work that takes a lifetime. It is about the impossibility of being a woman in a world made for men. It is about motherhood and friendship and the choices that haunt us. It is a book about the mess and muck of humanity, and there is wisdom and healing in it no matter who you are.
I know Circe so well now that I have certain passages memorized. I can hear Weeks's voice in my head—the smooth, deep sureness she uses to voice Circe; the bright, ringing timbre of Circe's son, Telegonus; the shrill cruelty of Circe's sister, Pasiphaëthe; the bedrock quiet of Telemachus. Weeks gives each of these characters distinct vocal personalities, and yet she embodies in each of them something of Circe herself, filtering them through Circe's eyes. Layers of grief and power, wisdom and regret, underpin her every word. Her accent is precise but diffuse—I think of it as the Circe accent—and feels both immediate and timeless. Circe is the kind of book that reminds me why I read. Perdita Weeks transformed that book into an annual ritual that changes how I think about the world. I've listened to it six times, and still, it surprises me. Still, I have not reached its end.
Did you know?
Madeline Miller has a Masters degree in Classics from Brown University. But her lifelong love affair with Greek mythology began long before that, in childhood. Her mother, a librarian, started reading The Iliad to her when she was only five.
Miller's debut novel, The Song of Achilles, came out in 2011 and won the 2012 Orange Prize for Fiction. It took Miller 10 years to write. Circe came out seven years later, in 2018.
Miller has taught high school Ancient Greek and Latin, and her research for Circe included reading various source material in their original languages.
What listeners said
"Magnificent! This is the best book I've listened to in ages. Beautifully written from start to finish, Madeline Miller's novel breathes new life into old mythology. Through Circe's eyes, we perceive the strange and callous cruelty of the gods (and of men), the fleeting lives of mortals, love, loss, and the strange and wondrous magnificence of the world. There are heroes and monsters, adventure and witchcraft. The book is breathtaking in it's scope yet immensely personal and moving as well. It's a truly impressive achievement and I can't recommend it highly enough. Perdita Weeks’ narration is top notch." –Jim, Audible listener
"To say that Circe proves Madeline Miller to be an excellent writer, capable of capturing setting, time, characters, and essence, is an absolute understatement … And Perdita Weeks! What a find she is as a narrator." –Gillian, Audible listener
"I will listen to every story this narrator is willing to tell. It’s as if she and the author are one. The tale of Circe as imagined from her perspective is so full, so—I’m at a loss for an adjective big enough to describe—but it’s lodged in my body, the emotions and insight and observations, the mythical and the mortal. I will listen again just to get lost in it. One of my favorite audiobook experiences ever." -TM, Audible listener
"Circe has all my favorite elements: mythology, magic and a strong female pov with an authentic human voice. The narrator's performance, precise, lyrical yet understated, lured me into the depths of the story." –Wini, Audible listener
Quotes from Circe
"But in a solitary life, there are rare moments when another soul dips near yours, as stars once a year brush the earth. Such a constellation was he to me."
"He showed me his scars, and in return he let me pretend that I had none."
"It is a common saying that women are delicate creatures, flowers, eggs, anything that may be crushed in a moment's carelessness. If I had ever believed it, I no longer did."
"A golden cage is still a cage."
"I thought once that gods are the opposite of death, but I see now they are more dead than anything, for they are unchanging, and can hold nothing in their hands."
"Only that: we are here. This is what it means to swim in the tide, to walk the earth and feel it touch your feet. This is what it means to be alive."
About the author
Madeline Miller grew up in New York City and Philadelphia. She attended Brown University, where she earned her BA and MA in Classics. She has taught and tutored Latin, Greek, and Shakespeare to high school students for more than 15 years. She has also studied at the University of Chicago’s Committee on Social Thought, and in the Dramaturgy department at Yale School of Drama, where she focused on the adaptation of classical texts to modern forms. The Song of Achilles, her first novel, was awarded the 2012 Orange Prize for Fiction and was a New York Times bestseller. Miller was also shortlisted for the 2012 Stonewall Writer of the Year. Her second novel, Circe, was an instant #1 New York Times bestseller and won the Indies Choice Awards for both Best Adult Fiction and Best Audiobook of the Year, as well as being shortlisted for the 2019 Women’s Prize for Fiction. It is being adapted for a series with HBO Max. Miller’s novels have been translated into more than 25 languages, including Dutch, Mandarin, Japanese, Turkish, Arabic, and Greek, and her essays have appeared in publications including The Guardian, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, and NPR.org. She currently lives outside Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
About the performer
Perdita Weeks is a British actress who plays Juliet Higgins in the CBS-turned-NBC reboot series Magnum P.I. A native of Wales, she studied art history at the Courtauld Institute in London before pursuing her passion for performing. She portrayed Mary Boleyn in the Showtime historical drama The Tudors and appeared as Lydia Bennet in the ITV series Lost in Austen. Her recent works as a narrator include Megan Barnard’s Jezebel and Philippa Gregory’s The Virgin’s Lover.
Listen if you loved
Laura Sackton is a freelance writer and queer book nerd who loves complicated stories about women and messy queer characters.
