Great Circle: The soaring and emotional novel shortlisted for the Women’s Prize for Fiction 2022 and shortlisted for the Booker Prize 2021 - Softcover

Shipstead, Maggie

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0857526812 ISBN 13: 9780857526816

Publisher: Doubleday, 2021

Synopsis

LONGLISTED FOR THE WOMEN'S PRIZE FOR FICTION 2022
SHORTLISTED FOR THE BOOKER PRIZE 2021
THE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
TIME BOOK OF THE YEAR

A Book of the Year for The Times, Telegraph, Daily Express, New Statesman, Good Housekeeping, Daily Mail, Mail on Sunday, Time, Esquire, The Economist, Oprah Daily and Woman and Home

'A gripping historical adventure that feels sharp, fresh and modern'
STYLIST

'So beautiful, so daring, so complete'
TAYLOR JENKINS REID

'A masterpiece'
NIGELLA LAWSON

A soaring, breathtakingly ambitious novel that weaves together the astonishing lives of a 1950s vanished female aviator and the modern-day Hollywood actress who plays her on screen. For fans of TAYLOR JENKINS REID, WILLIAM BOYD and ANN PATCHETT
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From her days as a wild child in prohibition America to the blitz and glitz of wartime London, from the rugged shores of New Zealand to a lonely iceshelf in Antarctica, Marian Graves is driven by a need for freedom and danger.

Determined to live an independent life, she resists the pull of her childhood sweetheart, and burns her way through a suite of glamorous lovers. But it is an obsession with flight that consumes her most.

Now, as she is about to fulfil her greatest ambition, to circumnavigate the globe from pole to pole, Marian crash lands in a perilous wilderness of ice.

Over half a century later, troubled film star Hadley Baxter is drawn inexorably to play the enigmatic pilot on screen. It is a role that will lead her to an unexpected discovery, throwing fresh and spellbinding light on the story of the unknowable Marian Graves.
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'Extraordinary' NEW YORK TIMES

'Full of adventure, passion and tragedy' THE TIMES

'Soars from the very first page' SUNDAY EXPRESS

'Luminous, masterful. Glides seamlessly through 20th century history' DAILY TELEGRAPH

'Breathtaking' OBSERVER

'Impressive and gripping' SUNDAY TIMES

'Surprising and moving at every turn' GUARDIAN

'Audacious and Immersive' DAILY MAIL

'Accomplished and ambitious' FINANCIAL TIMES

Readers love GREAT CIRCLE:
***** What a read! Immense story with beautifully created characters
***** A 600 page turner that you are sad to finish
***** The story is so well researched and planned; historical fiction standing side by side with history itself
***** This is a stunning achievement, my perspective feels fundamentally transformed through reading it
***** A wonderful saga, covering a large chunk of the twentieth century

About this title

About the Author

MAGGIE SHIPSTEAD is the author of the New York Times bestselling novels SEATING ARRANGEMENTS - winner of the Dylan Thomas Prize and L A Times Book Prize for First Fiction - ASTONISH ME and the Booker-shortlisted GREAT CIRCLE. Her work has appeared in the New York Times, Guardian, Conde Nast Traveller, The Best American Short Stories and elsewhere. She is a graduate of the Iowa Writer's Workshop and a former Wallace Stegner Fellow at Stanford. YOU HAVE A FRIEND IN 10A is her first story collection. Maggie Shipstead grew up in California and lives in Los Angeles, California. Find her @MaggieShipstead and on www.MaggieShipstead.com

From the Back Cover

From the night she is rescued as a baby out of the flames of a sinking ship; to the day she joins a pair of daredevil pilots looping and diving over the rugged forests of her childhood, to the thrill of flying Spitfires during the war, the life of Marian Graves has always been marked by a lust for freedom and danger.

In 1950, she embarks on the great circle flight, circumnavigating the globe. It is Marian's life dream and her final journey, before she disappears without a trace.

Half a century later, Hadley Baxter, a brilliant, troubled Hollywood starlet is irresistibly drawn to play Marian Graves, a role that will lead her to probe the deepest mysteries of the vanished pilot's life.

Edition details

• Publisher: Doubleday
• Publication date: 2021
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0857526812
• ISBN 13: 9780857526816
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 608