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Madeline Miller

Goodreads Author

Born

Boston, The United States

Website

http://www.madelinemiller.com/

Twitter

MillerMadeline

Genre

Historical Fiction, Fiction

Member Since

August 2012

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Madeline Miller was born in Boston and grew up in New York City and Philadelphia. She attended Brown University, where she earned her BA and MA in Classics. For the last ten years she has been teaching and tutoring Latin, Greek and Shakespeare to high school students. 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. She currently lives in Cambridge, MA, where she teaches and writes. The Song of Achilles is her first novel.

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I haven't gotten to Circe yet but WOW did I love Song of Achilles. I especially love the way you took the Homeric epic with its lack of character internality and made it such an intimate, personal novel. Did you deliberate a lot on POV and/or narrator, or did you go into it knowing that it has to be through Patrocles' eyes?

Madeline Miller Thank you! And it was always going to be Patroclus. He was the one who fascinated me--the most beloved companion of Achilles, the so-called minor char…moreThank you! And it was always going to be Patroclus. He was the one who fascinated me--the most beloved companion of Achilles, the so-called minor character whose actions are the turning point of the entire Iliad. He is called "gentle" in Homer, and "kind to everyone," which makes him an outlier among the other Greek soldiers. And of course, he is the only thing that matters more to Achilles than his reputation. I wanted to understand him, and why he meant so much to Achilles. And I'm very grateful: he was a wonderful person to spend ten plus years living with. The only time I considered switching narrators was towards the end, after the---spoiler, but it is in the Iliad---fateful encounter with Hector. I briefly considered moving to Briseis, or Achilles as a narrator. But that was only for a moment. The Song of Achilles is Patroclus' book, and his voice is its heart, and he deserved to tell his story to the end.(less)

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Should I read The Odyssey before reading your new book Circe?

Madeline Miller You definitely do not have to have read the Odyssey to read Circe! It's really important to me that my novels don't require previous Greek myth knowle…moreYou definitely do not have to have read the Odyssey to read Circe! It's really important to me that my novels don't require previous Greek myth knowledge. I firmly believe that these stories are for everyone just as they are, and I work hard to try to give readers everything they need to know along the way. (Though if you do know the myths, there are some extra goodies in there!)

That said, as a classics teacher, I will never tell someone NOT to read Homer! If you do, I wholeheartedly recommend Emily Wilson's new translation, which is gripping and brilliant.(less)

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Madeline Miller’s books

Average rating: 4.25 · 3,725,829 ratings · 395,996 reviews · 22 distinct works • Similar authors

	The Song of Achilles 4.30 avg rating — 2,144,783 ratings — published 2011 — 237 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Circe 4.22 avg rating — 1,442,084 ratings — published 2018 — 211 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Galatea 3.93 avg rating — 131,998 ratings — published 2013 — 3 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Circe / The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller (Goodreads Author) 4.53 avg rating — 2,409 ratings — 7 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Heracles' Bow 3.20 avg rating — 1,695 ratings — published 2012	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Song of Achilles / Circe / Galatea 4.47 avg rating — 302 ratings — 4 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Mestra 4.10 avg rating — 59 ratings — expected publication 2026 — 9 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Untitled #2 4.14 avg rating — 49 ratings	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Untitled 3.87 avg rating — 30 ratings	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Madeline Miller Collection 3.50 avg rating — 2 ratings	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

More books by Madeline Miller…

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Madeline Miller's Blog

Events & Appearances

I’m very excited to announce some of my upcoming 2019 Circe events! More coming soon so be sure to check back. If you would like me to appear at your event please get in touch using my contact page.

July 20th-24th 2019
Sun Valley Writer’s Conference.

September 9th 2019, 7:30PM
Butler University, Visiting Writers Series
Indianapolis, IN.

September 26th-October 1st 2019
Travel Gems, Costa Navarin

Over at Amazon, the book editors are celebrating 25 years of curating the latest and greatest titles for Amazon Books. To mark the...

Polls

Which three books should we read in April? Vote for your favorite!
The top three books will be Book of the month in March 2019.
You vote by clicking on your absolute favorite below. You can only vote on ONE book.

The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller

26 votes 23.0%

It Ends with Us by Colleen Hoover

11 votes 9.7%

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Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda by Becky Albertalli

11 votes 9.7%

Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe (Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe, #1) by Benjamin Alire Sáenz

Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe by Benjamin Alire Sáenz

6 votes 5.3%

When the Moon Was Ours by Anna-Marie McLemore

6 votes 5.3%

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Call Me By Your Name by André Aciman

5 votes 4.4%

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5 votes 4.4%

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Hexbreaker by Jordan L. Hawk

5 votes 4.4%

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5 votes 4.4%

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4 votes 3.5%

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4 votes 3.5%

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4 votes 3.5%

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Shadow Bound by Erin Kellison

4 votes 3.5%

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3 votes 2.7%

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3 votes 2.7%

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2 votes 1.8%

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2 votes 1.8%

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Mélusine by Sarah Monette

2 votes 1.8%

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Death and Destruction by Patricia Logan

1 vote 0.9%

113 total votes

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