Great Circle: A novel

by Maggie Shipstead

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.

A century later, Hadley Baxter is cast to play Marian in a film that centers on Marian's disappearance in Antarctica. Vibrant, canny, disgusted with the claustrophobia of Hollywood, Hadley is eager to redefine herself after a romantic film franchise has imprisoned her in the grip of cult celebrity. Her immersion into the character of Marian unfolds, thrillingly, alongside Marian's own story, as the two women's fates--and their hunger for self-determination in vastly different geographies and times--collide. Epic and emotional, meticulously researched and gloriously told, Great Circle is a monumental work of art, and a tremendous leap forward for the prodigiously gifted Maggie Shipstead.

• ISBN10: 0525656979
• ISBN13: 9780525656975
• Publish Date: 4 May 2021
• Publish Status: Out of Stock
• Publish Country: US
• Imprint: Alfred A. Knopf
• Format: Hardcover
• Pages: 608
• Language: English
• URL: https://penguinrandomhouse.com/books/isbn/9780525656975

Reviews

[Terri M. LeBlanc]

This title was more literary than expected. I wanted more focus on Marian's desire to take to the skies during the dawn of aviation in the United States. I did enjoy those passage's in Shipstead's book the most. Beyond that the story really focuses on what abuse, emotional and physical, women go through to achieve their dreams which in the end, led to a somewhat depressing novel.

I received this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.