Description:
A brilliant new short story from the #1 New York Times bestselling author Madeline Miller--her first new work of fiction since the publication of Circe--that vibrantly reimagines the powerful and forgotten myth of Mestra.
A cursed father, a gifted daughter
Mestra, daughter of the King of Thessaly, is granted a unique gift by Poseidon: the ability to transform into any being she can imagine.
Her father, on the other hand, is cursed: As punishment for disrespecting the goddess Demeter, he is in possession of an unnatural, insatiable hunger.
Devoted Mestra suggests using her new gift to help her father. But if his hunger is bottomless, how much will he take from her? Soon she must decide: Will she keep helping her father survive, or finally break free?
A jewel-like tale of human fallibility, Mestra confirms Madeline Miller as our high priestess of mythology.
Brief description:
Madeline Miller is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of the novels The Song of Achilles and Circe, and the short story Galatea. Her books have been translated into forty languages. Miller studied in the Dramaturgy department at Yale School of Drama, where she focused on the adaptation of classical texts to modern forms, and has an MA in Classics from Brown University.
Review Quotes:
/// Praise for Galatea ///
"A powerful reimagining of Ovid's Pygmalion." - The Guardian
"In the hands of the author who brought us The Song of Achilles and Circe, Galatea has attitude and as much agency as she possibly can. . . . Her liberation is bittersweet." - New York Times
"Miller's Galatea is as matter of fact as the stone she came from. She is keenly aware of the motivations of those around her in the way that children, unencumbered by preconceptions or politesse, sometimes pierce the heart of things, to our discomfort. . . . Fans of Miller will find Galatea a captivating, if brief, return to the worlds that she so richly conjures." - Washington Post
/// Praise for Circe ///
"A bold and subversive retelling of the goddess's story that manages to be both epic and intimate in its scope." - New York Times
"A lush reimagining." - Washington Post
"So vivid, so layered, you could get lost in it. . . . Whether or not you think you like Greek mythology, this is just great storytelling. It feels cinematic." - NPR's Here & Now
"Miller, with her academic bona fides and born instinct for storytelling, seamlessly grafts modern concepts of selfhood and independence to her mystical reveries of smoke and silver, nectar and bones." - Entertainment Weekly
"Circe is . . . an airy delight, a novel to be gobbled greedily in a single sitting." - Guardian
"[Circe is] gorgeous and gimlet-eyed." - Boston Globe
/// Praise for The Song of Achilles ///
"It takes a truly gifted writer to make a song this old feel this beautifully new. . . . The Song of Achilles is fast, true, and incredibly rewarding." - USA Today
"A wildly romantic retelling of the Trojan War." - Time
"One of the best novelistic adaptations of Homer in recent memory." - Wall Street Journal
"Beautifully done. . . . In prose as clean and spare as the driving poetry of Homer, Miller captures the intensity and devotion of adolescent friendship." - Washington Post
"Seductive, hugely entertaining." - Vogue
"While classics scholar Miller meticulously follows Greek mythology, her explorations of ego, grief, and love's many permutations are both familiar and new. . . . A timeless love story." - O, The Oprah Magazine
"Madeline Miller's brilliant first novel . . . is a story of great, passionate love between Achilles and Patroclus." - Dallas Morning News