Circe

The daughter of the sun is banished to an empty island, and there she learns witchcraft.

In Circe, Madeline Miller takes a minor character from the Odyssey and gives her a whole life. Circe grows up in the palace of Helios, where her voice sounds too human and she has too little power to be taken seriously. When it turns out that with herbs and words she can do things that unsettle the gods, she is banished to the island of Aiaia. There, all on her own, she builds something that resembles a life, until ships drop anchor, and on one of them, Odysseus.

Miller tells mythology as if you were standing right beside her: calm, vivid and with a keen eye for what it costs a woman to claim her own place. If you have read The Song of Achilles, you know what tone to expect. This English-language paperback from Bloomsbury has become a modern classic among mythological novels, and exactly the kind of book you set aside a whole afternoon and a pot of tea for.