Miller’s second novel, Circe, was released in 2018 it’s narrated from the perspective of Circe, a minor character from The Odyssey. In 2012, the book received the Orange Prize for Fiction. The book was ten years in the making, as Miller drafted and redrafted to focus the story’s narration. Miller wanted to retell the Trojan War with a particular focus on Achilles and Patroclus the two are commonly interpreted as lovers, but their romantic relationship is peripheral in most Greco-Roman myths of the Trojan War. She published her first book, The Song of Achilles, in 2011. Then she received an MFA from the Yale School of Drama, where she focused on adapting classics for modern audiences. After completing her undergraduate and graduate work in Classics at Brown University, she taught and tutored high school students in Greek, Latin, and Shakespeare. Madeline Miller was born in Boston and grew up in both Philadelphia and New York City. To support the Guardian and the Observer buy a copy at. The Song of Achilles is published by Bloomsbury (£9.99). Every writer wants their book to have its own life, but I never in my wildest dreams imagined that my Achilles and Patroclus would get to have such a rich and rewarding one. (My fears about a classical backlash never came to pass the classics community has been wonderfully supportive.) I’ve heard from people who said it helped them come out to their parents, and others who said it inspired them to get their PhDs, or to start their own novels.

In the decade since it was published I’ve been honoured to hear from readers who put excerpts in their wedding vows, who made quotes into tattoos, who taught it in their classes. I wanted this book to be that kind of story: one with open arms, with room for everyone who might want to come in. For so many years, books had been homes for me, places I’d found welcome when I couldn’t find it elsewhere. Because while I hoped that at least some classicists might like the book, I wanted this story to be for everyone, whether they knew classics or not, maybe even especially if they didn’t. One of my professors had started his course with the following salvo: “This is a class on Greek history, so I don’t want to hear any questions about women or slaves.” A young woman taking the revered and traditionally male epic material of the Iliad and centring it as a gay love story might not thrill people.īut still I kept writing. Attempts to expand the lens of scholarship have sometimes been met with open hostility, and women and scholars of colour have been undermined and belittled.

There is a long history of gatekeeping in classics. I feared that my classics peers and professors would hate the idea. That summer, I began to write with his voice.

The song of achilles by madeline miller