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Great Circle

The soaring and emotional novel shortlisted for the Women’s Prize for Fiction and the Booker Prize

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Great Circle

By: Maggie Shipstead
Narrated by: Cassandra Campbell, Alex McKenna
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About this listen

Brought to you by Penguin.

**SHORTLISTED FOR THE BOOKER PRIZE 2021**

**LONGLISTED FOR THE WOMEN'S PRIZE FOR FICTION 2022**

I WAS BORN TO BE A WANDERER

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 her life's dream - to fly a Great Circle around the globe, pole to pole. But after a crash landing she finds herself stranded on the Antarctic ice without enough fuel. With one fearsome piece of water separating her from completion of the Circle, she writes one last entry in her logbook.

She is ready for her final journey.

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.

GREAT CIRCLE is an enthralling journey over oceans and continents and a drama of exhilarating power. Combining unforgettable characters and thrilling suspense, it is a sweeping story of loss and obsession, sacrifice and survival, of the unknowable mysteries of freedom, love and life itself.

Praise for Maggie Shipstead, New York Times bestseller and winner of the Dylan Thomas Prize and LA Times First Fiction Prize:

'Outrageously gifted' RICHARD RUSSO
'Ferociously clever' GUARDIAN
''Graceful and dazzling' MARIA SEMPLE
'Joyously good' DAILY MAIL
'impressive' JEFFREY EUGENIDES

© Maggie Shipstead 2021 (P) Penguin Audio 2021

20th Century Action & Adventure Biographical Fiction Coming of Age Genre Fiction Historical Fiction Fiction Heartfelt Thought-Provoking Aviation War Native American Mystery

Critic reviews

Luminous, masterful ... glides seamlessly through the 20th century immersing the reader. Tremendously well-written
A gripping historical adventure that feels sharp, fresh and modern
Shipstead turns phrases and observes people beautifully. Full of adventure, passion and tragedy... a glorious tribute to women who push the boundaries of their one, brief life, breaking the bonds of their place in history and their female bodies, to soar higher and faster than others; and the price they pay to live so fast
Impressive and gripping
What's so impressive is how deeply we care about each of these people, and how the shape and texture of each of their stories collide to build a story all its own. GREAT CIRCLE grasps for and ultimately reaches something extraordinary
The Marian portions rove from Montana to Manhattan to Scotland and Antarctica, and read like a carnival of early-20th-century American history, packed with bootleggers, treacherous boxcar rides, and tragic shipwrecks. The Hadley chapters offer a delectable dissection of life as a celebrity, serving up an intelligent skewering of the Hollywood machine and allowing the book to take flight
GREAT CIRCLE is a novel of our insatiable need to stare down the terrible, magnificent vastness of it all: love, war, desire, fear ... A sweeping, swashbuckling book, full of oversaturated colour and grand destiny. The joy of this dynamic, soaring novel is not a welcome extra but its very engine
Encompasses flight, travel adventure, identity, sexuality, family, the celebrity age - and in such beautiful writing. A masterpiece.
Rocked by the cool cadences of Shipstead's prose, readers will embark on a journey through time and space. Across 600 pages, they'll link arms with its characters as they stroll along the decks of early-1900s ocean liners, then board private jets to eavesdrop on the poolside parties of 21st-century Hollywood. They'll spot eagles arcing over the wild frontiers of Prohibition-era America then feel the lonely, existential chill of the white expanses of Antarctica - in between city breaks in Europe and Australia
This wonderful novel weaves together the story of two women: a female aviator who goes missing in the1950s and the Hollywood star playing her in a film in the present day. A commitment that rewards with memorable characters and vivid storytelling
All stars
Most relevant
I never wanted this audiobook to end; the characters are fascinating and I cared so deeply about all their individual histories, which are followed across many long lifetimes....I couldn't stop telling people about it and have recommended it to everyone!

When the bottle fails to smash on an ocean liners maiden voyage, could it really be a bad omen? Let this swirling history be the judge, as it paints a picture of bootleggers during Prohibition, of the first women, and men, to fly and the contribution those women made to the war effort, intertwined with a modern tale of a lost actor trying to find her real self within the Hollywood-franchised version she's currently battling with. There's just so much here to enjoy! Marian Graves feels like a heroine to me, fiction or no.

Super long audiobooks, when this brilliant, are an absolute joy...I left my bike at home & walked an hour each way to work, just to give myself more time to listen!

WHAT A JOY!!

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Thanks Audible for this. I loved the epic story of the life of Marian Graves and the characters that were part of her amazing life
Performed by two women who bring the story to life and make Great Circle one of Audible’s very best.
It is totally involving and I was very sorry when I got to the end

Beautiful story, outstanding performance

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I was totally immersed in the character's lives, particularly the descriptions of flying a small aircraft. Will definitely listen to the story again.

Absorbing story

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I love the style if this author. Totally absorbing. Do not miss this. I've ridden swimming horses..that was a small highlight for me amoung many others to numerous to mention!!

Brilliant

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A complex, expansive saga which feels daunting at the outset but swiftly sucks you in. The odd digression feels a little much but come the end everything makes perfect sense. Narration works well, with the two different voices separating the time lines neatly. Neither should have attempted an English accent, frankly, but luckily that's a very minor quibble. Excellent and likely to stay with me for a long time.

Compelling, immersive and satisfying

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