128
Book · 2011
The Song of Achilles
Exiled to the court of Phthia as a boy, Patroclus befriends Achilles, the king's son. The two grow up together, train under the centaur Chiron, and become lovers. When the Trojan War breaks out, Achilles joins the Greek fleet to win renown, despite a prophecy that he will not return alive. Patroclus follows him to Troy as the siege drags on for years.
Your call
Already know it? Recommend it too.
Details
Around the Web
Meanwhile, Achilles, who cannot function without Patroclus’ help, remains remote and godlike. Even for a scholar of Greek literature, which Miller is, rewriting the Western world’s first and greatest war novel is an awesome task to undertake. That she did it with such grace, style and suspense is astonishing.
Bryan Woolley on The Dallas Morning News The author creates a sympathetic character in Patroclus, who narrates the novel. In the Iliad , his life is not given much attention — his importance is in his death which brings a grief-stricken, raging Achilles back into battle. In The Song of Achilles , Patroclus is significant not only in relation to Achilles, but as the lens through which we see the other players.
Alice Padwe on The Washington Independent Review of Books Gradually, The Song of Achilles becomes a quiet love story, one so moving that I was reluctant to move on to the war and Homer’s tale of perverted honor and stubborn pride. But Miller segues into that more public story with grace … In prose as clean and spare as the driving poetry of Homer, Miller captures the intensity and devotion of adolescent friendship and lets us believe in these long-dead boys for whom sea nymphs and centaurs are not legend but lived reality.
Mary Doria Russell on The Washington Post
1 / 3
Why people recommend it
No reasons shared yet. Tell others what makes this title worth their time.