Author Talks: Gods and Mortals: Madeline Miller with Emily Wilson
The author of the international bestseller The Song of Achilles returns with her latest novel, the story of the mythological sorceress Circe, inspired by The Odyssey. She speaks about it with classicist and Odyssey translator Emily Wilson.
Madeline Miller's first novel, The Song of Achilles, transformed The Iliad from a vast impersonal epic into an intimate and poignant love story, combining scholarship with creativity to such heights that Miller won comparisons to Mary Renault and Margaret Atwood—as well as the 2012 Orange Prize for Fiction. Now Miller turns her mind to Homer's other great work, and one of mythology's most riveting figures, in Circe.
The daughter of the nymph Perse and the sun god Helios, Circe is trapped between the worlds of gods and mortals, both of which are threatened by her extensive powers of witchcraft. Banished by Zeus to a deserted island, her powers grow as she crosses paths with some of mythology's greatest characters: Daedalus and Icarus; the Minotaur; Medea; and, of course, Odysseus.
Circe is the story of a woman who stands alone, a celebration of indomitable female strength in a man's world. Madeline Miller discusses the book with classicist and translator Emily Wilson, the first woman to translate The Odyssey into English.
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