Maggie Shipstead: Great Circle, A. Knopf (Penguin Random House US),  9781524712020, large format paperback, 

Shortlisted for Women’s Prize for Fiction 2022, K

(German edition: Kreiseziehen, DTV)

 

I started reading Maggie Shipstead’s “Great Circle” twice, discovering a few months ago I was not in the right frame of mind to concentrate on such an epic story,  589 pages of superb writing as it turned out to be. I am so glad I gave it a second go, absolutely loved submerging myself into the cosmos of female aviator Marian Graves’s incredible, fictional life which has so many stories in a story it could go on forever.  

As a baby, Marian and her twin brother Jamie were rescued from a sinking ocean liner in 1914 and brought up living an almost feral life as children at their Uncle Wallace’s farm in Missoula, Montana.  Discovering a passion for flying early through travelling barnstorming pilots, Marian is determined to make her dream come true to become a pilot, striking a fateful deal with bootlegger Barclay Macqueen whom she marries later. She has to escape her husband’s stronghold, creating a new identity and years of restless resettling before her destiny, to become an independent woman circumnavigating the globe being the first to fly over the North and South Poles, seems attainable by a lucky turn of events.

“Great Circle” is a rich tale with many colorful characters but Marian became especially dear to me, as did her brother Jamie who inherited his Uncle Wallace’s talent for painting and is the polar opposite to Marian. The novel begins in 1914, is set mostly in the US but also England during WWII, but makes a connection to the present by way of a second storyline which really irritated me at first. Actress Hadley Baxter who is to play Marian in a Hollywood movie is the second heroine of the novel with an entirely different voice.   

I questioned first whether this second story had been a good idea but as the book develops and particularly towards the last
part of the novel, it all makes sense and comes together.  A great book, an emotional story, fabulous writing, what more do you want from a book – I loved it!