The NEA Big Read Miami 2024

Join Miami Book Fair in reading MADELINE MILLER’s bestselling and critically acclaimed novel CIRCE, a spellbinding epic spanning thousands of years that recasts the most infamous female figure from the Odyssey as a hero in her own right. 

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, and love and loss, as well as a celebration of indomitable female strength in a man’s world. That human need for connection is at the heart of the Greek myths and why they endure, says Miller.

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“I think sometimes people are intimidated by [the myths] – they believe that they are only for elite readers. But that’s not the case at all, and never has been. Homer’s poems were passed down from generation to generation through oral tradition – they were stories told by grandparents to their grandchildren, they were stories everyone knew. And they have lived because they are such potent tales of human nature. So many thousands of years later, they still hold the mirror up: We still love and grieve, hope and despair, go to war, and yearn for peace. If we look past the chariots and spears, these ancient stories are incredibly modern, and have much to teach us about ourselves.” (RoosterGNN)

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