Great Circle by Maggie Shipstead

Rating: 4.5 stars

The Woman’s Prize for Fiction just announced its Winner for 2022, Ruth Ozeki, the author of The Book of Form and Emptiness. I, unfortunately, did not get a chance to read that book, but what I did read was one of the Finalists’—Great Circle by Maggie Shipstead.

Great Circle is a historical, and biographical fiction novel told over dual timelines. Putting together the life and adventures of female aviator Marian Graves, who disappeared during her last flight, and the troubled young actress Hadley Baxter, who will be playing Marion in her biopic decades later. 

Narratively the book is structured as a biography of Marian Graves. Written in the third person, it begins with an introduction to her parents, and their lives, before transitioning into the life of Marian and her twin brother Jamie. From there, you learn about Jamie and his life and journey to adulthood, but the main focus of this book is Marian, her life, and her adventures.  While Hadley’s sections, written in first person, are interspliced between these sections. She tells us about her struggles, and we follow her growing interest in Marian and finding out as much as she can about her story.

Reading a book with dual timelines and different points of view, one character will outshine the rest; for Great Circle, this is Marian Graves and her brother. Reading about them growing up together and taking two different paths in life while caring for each other was great. While upsetting when they had issues, their bond was strong. Both twins understood how the world worked, and the world wasn’t exactly kind to them. Nevertheless, they both had their own wishes and worked hard to maintain them, or to get what they wanted, especially during a time when the world looked down on what they wanted or did not want.

Hadley was a little different while she was dealing with her own issues, and while understandable. She was a child actress growing up in Hollywood. It was still lacking in places, and some parts of her story were left out in favour of Marian’s story. It would have been nice to push a little deeper into Hadley and find the connection between her and Marian.

For all of its weaknesses, the strengths of Great Circle are showing the importance of your dreams, being true to yourself, and understanding that while the world around you is trying to fight against you, it is ultimately your choices that are the most important, even if they are small ones.

Overall although it didn’t win this year’s Women’s Prize for Fiction, Great Circle is still a moving, inspiring piece of literature that may have its flaws, but its story is still powerful, important and one you need to read.

Once again, congratulations on the winner of this year’s Women’s Prize for Fiction, Ruth Ozeki. There is a short and long list of books created by brilliant female authors and you can check out their entries for this year by visiting the Women’s Prize for Fiction Website. You can buy Great Circle through Waterstones, Amazon, and your local independent bookstore.

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Freelance writer with a love of books, particularly those from the 70s and 80s, and in the horror genre, Kennie has a fondness for classical literature and isn't opposed to digging in with the odd women's fiction. She lives in Shropshire, England with her husband, several furry guinea pups, and Duke the Fish. In order to stop annoying her husband with her constant conversation about the books she reads, she created Step Into The Void, a blog named after the mental state her other half says he steps into whenever she starts talking about the latest Jay Kristoff vampire novel or decides to try to explain the entire plot to Jenn Lyon's four-book epic The Chorus of Dragons or tries to explain why the horror fiction genre is slowing coming back thanks to authors like Grady Hendrix, Augustina Bazterrica, and Catriona Ward.  

Check out her Instagram @booksinthevoid