The Song of Achilles: A Novel

Madeline Miller

Mar 2012 · Sold by Harper Collins

About this ebook

“At once a scholar’s homage to The Iliad and startlingly original work of art by an incredibly talented new novelist….A book I could not put down.”
—Ann Patchett

“Mary Renault lives again!” declares Emma Donoghue, author of Room, referring to The Song of Achilles, Madeline Miller’s thrilling, profoundly moving, and utterly unique retelling of the legend of Achilles and the Trojan War. 

A tale of gods, kings, immortal fame, and the human heart, The Song of Achilles is a dazzling literary feat that brilliantly reimagines Homer’s enduring masterwork, The Iliad. An action-packed adventure, an epic love story, a marvelously conceived and executed page-turner, Miller’s monumental debut novel has already earned resounding acclaim from some of contemporary fiction’s brightest lights—and fans of Mary Renault, Bernard Cornwell, Steven Pressfield, and Colleen McCullough’s Masters of Rome series will delight in this unforgettable journey back to ancient Greece in the Age of Heroes.

Ratings and reviews

I found this book to be profoundly entertaining and enlightening. I was very reluctant to purchase it as I figured I knew how Achilles would meet his end and assumed that the book would be mostly Patroclus dreading and then mourning his lover's death. I was partially correct. Achilles impending doom did stay in my mind for a little while, but I was transfixed watching the romance between Patroclus and Achilles unfold. But as I grew fond of the two characters, my fear of 'the end' started to surface as well, which is about the time that the prophecy of his death in battle is revealed. This really helped me connect with Patroclus as now both of us were somehow hoping for a way to postpone the fate. Here is where the story begins to move in very unexpected ways - while I'm dreading Achilles' demise, it recounts his life, the time he got to enjoy his God-given skills and bask in the arms of his lover. For the first time in reading a book I began to prize the journey more than the ending which is a good lesson to learn since to die is the human condition, but to live is a privilege and a choice.

Quite Dull. The story arch and narrative were so soft and "rounded" that reading it literally put me to sleep. I gave up half way through. Definitely not my cup of tea.

I really loved this novel. The relationship between Achilles and Patroclus was beautifully written in a graceful manner that allowed you to grieve with both of them as one lost the other. I never understood why Patroclus stepped out of that chariot, but this book offers as good a reason as any I've ever seen. It really shows why Greek mythology is one of the best examples of storytelling there's ever been. Absolutely brilliant.

About the author

Madeline Miller is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of two novels: The Song of Achilles, which won the Orange Women’s Prize for Fiction 2012, and Circe, which was short-listed for the Women’s Prize for Fiction 2019. Her books have been translated into over thirty two languages. Miller holds an MA in Classics from Brown University, studied in the Dramaturgy department at Yale School of Drama, where she focused on the adaptation of classical texts to modern forms, and taught Latin, Greek, and Shakespeare to high school students for over a decade.