PRESS REVIEWS
Emma Donoghue, author of number 1 bestseller, Room:
'Mary Renault lives again! A ravishingly vivid and convincing version of one of the most legendary of love stories'
... Ann Patchett, author of the Orange Prizewinning, Bel Canto:
'The Song of Achilles is at once a scholar’s homage to The Iliad and
startlingly original work of art by an incredibly talented new novelist.
Madeline Miller has given us her own fresh take on the Trojan war and
its heroes. The result is a book I could not put down'
ABOUT THE BOOK
Greece in the age of Heroes. Patroclus, an awkward young prince, has
been exiled to the kingdom of Phthia. Here he is nobody, just another
unwanted boy living in the shadow of King Peleus and his golden son,
Achilles.
Achilles, ‘best of all the Greeks’, is everything
Patroclus is not – strong, beautiful, the child of a goddess – and by
all rights their paths should never cross. Yet one day, Achilles takes
the shamed prince under his wing and soon their tentative companionship
gives way to a steadfast friendship. As they grow into young men skilled
in the arts of war and medicine, their bond blossoms into something far
deeper – despite the displeasure of Achilles’s mother Thetis, a cruel
and deathly pale sea goddess with a hatred of mortals.
Fate is
never far from the heels of Achilles. When word comes that Helen of
Sparta has been kidnapped, the men of Greece are called upon to lay
siege to Troy in her name. Seduced by the promise of a glorious destiny,
Achilles joins their cause, Torn between love and fear for his friend,
Patroclus follows Achilles into war, little knowing that the years that
follow will test everything they have learned, everything they hold
dear. And that, before he is ready, he will be forced to surrender his
friend to the hands of Fate.
Profoundly moving and
breathtakingly original, this rendering of the epic Trojan War is a
dazzling feat of the imagination, a devastating love story, and an
almighty battle between gods and kings, peace and glory, immortal fame
and the human heart.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Madeline Miller has a
BA and MA from Brown University in Latin and Ancient Greek, and has
been teaching both for the past nine years. She has also studied at the
Yale School of Drama, specialising in adapting classical tales to a
modern audience. The Song of Achilles is her first novel, published by
Bloomsbury in September 2011.
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