Circe

"Yes, there’s been a real trend in reimagined Greek myths recently. I think Madeline Miller should be credited for popularising that. Her Song of Achilles probably remains my favourite of her books, but Circe is a very close second. It’s about a goddess and witch from the Odyssey. She’s best-remembered as the witch who turned Odysseus’s men into pigs. But what Miller does so cleverly is that she reframes Circe’s story and brings us right back to the very beginning—so by the point that Odysseus enters the frame, her turning the men into pigs feels an entirely understandable reaction, given what we’ve found out about her life predating that moment. For a long time, female and LGBTQ stories were forgotten or overlooked in history books. I think fiction is an extraordinary tool for filling in where there is a gap, and imagining what those stories might have been. Women would have been very active in the past, yes. You’re right that history is told by the powerful, and the powerful have been, for centuries, men. Stories have been told by male historians."

"I’m a junkie for retellings of Greek and Roman mythology, but the highest praise I can give Circe is that you do not have to be so to be moved by this book. It’s an extraordinarily clever reimagining of the tale of Circe, the witch of Homer’s epic, who seduces Odysseus and transforms his crew to pigs, among other things. But what Miller has created is the story of a woman, overlooked and underestimated, who slowly and painfully unearths her gifts over the course of many lifetimes. (Sound familiar, er … women?) It’s a story and a hope that resonates in dark times — for, as one character tells another, if you cannot bear this world a moment longer, “child, make another.”"

"Circe, by Madeline Miller. I never saw a single episode of Game of Thrones, but I would watch the hell out of this female-centric mythical epic."