LoveReading Says
Shortlisted for the 2021 Booker Prize - A Reader's Review
A wonderful novel, so enjoyable and accessible that quite frankly it's amazing it's on the list at all! An epic tale that crosses generations and continents and weaves together the stories of an early 20th century female aviator and a modern day Hollywood actress. Full of girl power without being try-hard, this author also has a rare ability to write well about sex as real, raw and sensuous. Everybody should read this! - Tanya Carus
Find out more about the 2021 Booker Prize Winner & Shortlist
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About Great Circle
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER A TODAY SHOW #ReadWithJenna BOOK CLUB PICK The unforgettable story of a daredevil female aviator determined to chart her own course in life, at any cost: an "epic trip-through Prohibition and World War II, from Montana to London to present-day Hollywood-and you'll relish every minute" (People).After being rescued as infants from a sinking ocean liner in 1914, Marian and Jamie Graves are raised by their dissolute uncle in Missoula, Montana. There--after encountering a pair of barnstorming pilots passing through town in beat-up biplanes--Marian commences her lifelong love affair with flight. At fourteen she drops out of school and finds an unexpected and dangerous patron in a wealthy bootlegger who provides a plane and subsidizes her lessons, an arrangement that will haunt her for the rest of her life, even as it allows her to fulfill her destiny: circumnavigating the globe by flying over the North and South Poles.
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Maggie Shipstead Press Reviews
This is truly exceptional storytelling, combining a sweeping arc of history with writing that, at sentence level, is near-flawless - BOOKSELLER
Luminous, masterful ... glides seamlessly through the 20th century immersing the reader. Tremendously well-written. - TELEGRAPH
Effortlessly woven... deserves to be savoured slowly - Katie Law, EVENING STANDARD
Accomplished and ambitious... Most novelists have their limits and cut their cloth accordingly. Shipstead is a writer who can vividly summon whatever she chooses, taking the reader deep inside the world she creates. - FINANCIAL TIMES
Whether Shipstead is creating scenes in the Prohibition-era American West, in wartime London, or on a Hollywood movie set, her research is invisible, allowing a fully immersive experience. Ingeniously structured and so damn entertaining; this novel is as ambitious as its heroines - but it never falls from the sky. - KIRKUS
Impressive and gripping - SUNDAY TIMES
Books to look forward to in 2021 - GUARDIAN, INDEPENDENT, NEW STATESMAN
Shipstead's breathaking epic of a female aviator is a stunning feat - PUBLISHERS' WEEKLY
Transcendent ... A rolling, roiling epic ... Through the interwoven stories of impetuous flyer Marian Graves and flavor-of-the-month actress Hadley Baxter, Shipstead ponders the motivating forces behind acts of daring defiance, self-fulfilment and self-destruction. An ambitious, soaring saga. - BOOKLIST
Underpinning it all is a reverence for nature, thrumming in the forests of Montana, the jagged peaks of Alaska and the stupefying ice shelves of the Antarctic. Exhilarating, masterful depictions ... invites readers to contemplate both magnitude and majesty - BOOKPAGE [Starred review]
This new work from the award-winning Shipstead (Seating Arrangements) justifies its length, by its intricately designed plot and by giving its compelling cast of characters room to breathe. As Hadley learns some of Marian's secrets (the ones that weren't in the script) readers will wonder how much we can truly know anyone. Highly recommended. - LIBRARY JOURNAL [starred review]
Rocked by the cool cadences of Shipstead's prose, readers will embark on a journey through time and space. Across 600 pages, they'll link arms with its characters as they stroll along the decks of early-1900s ocean liners, then board private jets to eavesdrop on the poolside parties of 21st-century Hollywood. They'll spot eagles arcing over the wild frontiers of Prohibition-era America then feel the lonely, existential chill of the white expanses of Antarctica - in between city breaks in Europe and Australia - INDEPENDENT
A gorgeous soaring story that takes flight from the very first page - SUNDAY EXPRESS
Relentlessly exciting . . . My top recommendation for this summer. Shipstead's sweeping new female-centered epic intertwines the story of Marian, an aviator who wants to circumnavigate the globe with that of actor Hadley Baxter, cast a century later to play Marian in a film. What can Marian's life tell Hadley about her own? - WASHINGTON POST
Dazzling prose in the service of an expansive story that covers more than a century and seems to encapsulate the whole wide world. With detailed brilliance, she lavishes heart and empathy on every character. She never wavers, pulls out a twist or two that feel fully earned, and then sticks the landing - BOSTON GLOBE
In a moment when our quarantined worlds have become so small, GREAT CIRCLE offers more than just wanderlust; it feels like a liberation. - ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY
What's so impressive is how deeply we care about each of these people, and how the shape and texture of each of their stories collide to build a story all its own. GREAT CIRCLE grasps for and ultimately reaches something extraordinary - NEW YORK TIMES
A clever, poignant story about ambition, love and sacrifice that'll completely draw you in - COSMOPOLITAN MAGAZINE
Bestselling novelist Maggie Shipstead was struggling to depict a female adventurer. So she became one. The stakes of GREAT CIRCLE are high-for its heroine, literally life or death. Though Shipstead never learned to fly herself, she aligned with her main character Marian Graves in more important ways . . . She is interested in testing her limits - L A TIMES
This wonderful novel weaves together the story of two women: a female aviator who goes missing in the1950s and the Hollywood star playing her in a film in the present day. A commitment that rewards with memorable characters and vivid storytelling - GOOD HOUSEKEEPING
