The Song of Achilles

How to make Greek myths accessible to a 21st-century reader? Madeline Miller, a classics scholar by training, does a very good job. The Song of Achilles was apparently ten years in the making, the result of painstaking research to create context and character. Similar to Circe (her second novel). The result is well worth it. Miller has created a compelling piece of fiction, a crossover between literature and page-turner. I was reminded of Rushdie's Victory City, in terms of creation of another world, and also ‘Game of Thrones’, just for the sheer action and battles. Much of the genius of The Song of Achilles lies in Miller's telling of the Iliad. Readers know it well, and badly, for Achilles, and that the war with Sparta will last for over a decade, but exactly how these events play out is left to her narration. The greatness of heroic endeavour is contrasted here poignantly with the hubris of the key protagonists. The depiction of Achilles' relationship with Patroclus was also well done and central to the understanding of his character. Nine and a half out of ten.

By Madeline Miller