Women’s Prize for Fiction 2012: Madeline Miller, “The Song of Achilles”

As can be guessed from the title, Madeline Miller’s debut novel The Song of Achilles is a retelling of the classic tale of Achilles and his lover, Patroclus. Spoiler up front for those who aren’t more familiar with classical Greek culture: they both die, and leave it to the Greeks, they both are well aware that at the very least, Achilles’ death has been foretold years and years in advance. So, spoilers for everyone! Ha.

But even with this in mind from almost the beginning, Miller’s narrative style is so rich in details and informal in its tone, that the reader can almost forget the sad ending which we are sure to have to endure and enjoy the present. Miller discarded a completed manuscript after five years of writing in order to perfect the voice of her novel’s narrator, and it was well worth the ten-year wait—Patroclus’ easy familiarity as a quasi-outsider is both quite intimate and quite trustworthy at the same time.

Lastly, on a side note, The Song of Achilles has one of the best last lines I have ever read in a novel—even as it brought me to tears (hardly anything ever does!) I had to keep reading it again and again in order to better appreciate its beauty and simplicity.

Miller is an American scholar born in Boston and raised in New York City and Philadelphia. She attended Brown University and received both her BA and MA in Classics. She is the fourth debut novelist to win the Women’s Prize for Fiction, and since writing The Song of Achilles, she has written quite a few other novels, including the one she is perhaps most well known for, Circe, which was shortlisted for the Women’s Prize for Fiction. She has won numerous awards, including the Indies Choice Best Adult Fiction and The Red Tentacle Award, and also has been published in The Guardian, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, and on NPR. She currently lives outside of Philadelphia, according to her website.

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