Circe by Madeline Miller

My book for March was Circe by Madeline Miller. Carmen gave me the book for Christmas.

The book won a number of awards. It was winner of the 2019 Indie Choice Award and shortlisted for the 2019 Women's Prize for Fiction. The book was named one of the 'Best Books of 2018' by NPR and Amazon.

The story is the reimagining of Greek mythology through the experiences of one goddess's experiences. Circe is the daughter of Helios, god of the sun and Perse, a lowly naiad.

In surviving Greek myths, she appears in a number of stories. In the Odyssey, she is the witch who turns the sailors into pigs and invites Odysseus to be her lover and stay with her for a year. Circe cleansed Medea and Jason of their crimes as they fled Colchis with the Golden Fleece. She also features in the story of the Minotaur. Pasiphae, wife of King Minos and mother of the Minotaur is Circe’s sister.

This book is the life story of the Greek goddess Circe. Over her long life, she interacts with a number of gods, heros and mortals famous in Greek Mythology. Like the two other books that Carmen has given me [Station Eleven and Piranesi], this is not a book that I would have picked up on my own. Nevertheless, I enjoyed it. I particularly enjoyed the fact that Circe spent some time at the Palace of Knossos; Sharon and I visited Crete and the Palace of Knossos last September!