Talk about updating the classics.” ― Time Magazine bringing those dark figures back to life, making them men again, and while she’s at it, us her passionate companion piece to The Iliad as a subtle swipe at today’s ongoing debate over gay marriage. Some of the suspense comes from curiosities, like who will tell the story after Patroclus dies, but most of it comes from the urgency of Miller’s storytelling.

and puts a sexy new narrative spin on the ancients that is surprisingly suspenseful. Miller plays with the historical record as established by Homer. “A wildly romantic retelling of the Trojan Was as a story of longtime companions narrated by Patroclus. Patroclus follows Achilles into battle, but it is their magnificent and very modern love story that makes this an epic.' ― The Independent Miller has combined scholarship with imagination to turn the most familiar war epic into a fresh, emotionally riveting and sexy page-turner. Yet Miller’s fantastic first novel-shortlisted for the Orange Prize-seems singular in its scope and scholarship.

“Others have penned imaginative riffs on Homer’s epics, not least Margaret Atwood in her witty and wise The Penelopiad. Profoundly moving and breathtakingly original, this rendering of the epic Trojan War is a dazzling feat of the imagination, a devastating love story, and an almighty battle between gods and kings, peace and glory, immortal fame and the human heart. And that, before he is ready, he will be forced to surrender his friend to the hands of Fate. Torn between love and fear for his friend, Patroclus follows Achilles into war, little knowing that the years that follow will test everything they have learned, everything they hold dear. Seduced by the promise of a glorious destiny, Achilles joins their cause.

When word comes that Helen of Sparta has been kidnapped, the men of Greece are called upon to lay siege to Troy in her name. As they grow into young men skilled in the arts of war and medicine, their bond blossoms into something far deeper-despite the displeasure of Achilles’ mother Thetis, a cruel sea goddess with a hatred of mortals.įate is never far from the heels of Achilles. Yet one day, Achilles takes the shamed prince under his wing and soon their tentative connection gives way to a steadfast friendship. Here he is nobody, just another unwanted boy living in the shadow of King Peleus and his golden son, Achilles.Īchilles, “best of all the Greeks,” is everything Patroclus is not-strong, beautiful, the child of a goddess-and by all rights their paths should never cross. Patroclus, an awkward young prince, has been exiled to the kingdom of Phthia.

A Canção de Aquiles by Madeline Miller