Book review: The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller

Image: The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller, Ecco Press (Harper Collins), 2011. Cover design ? Photograph of audiobook taken by me. Image used by on this blog under the “Fair dealing for criticism or review” provision of the Commonwealth Copyright Act, 1968. Background image is an illustration by John Flaxman (1755-1826) from an edition of the Iliad by Homer, translated by Alfred Church, Macmillan, 1911. Image in the public domain via Internet Archive Book Images on Flickr.

The Song of Achilles is famous on BookTok for making people cry. I thought already knowing the end of the Iliad would save me from this fate, but not gonna lie… I did shed a few tears.

This is a retelling of the Iliad from the perspective of Patroclus, intimate friend of Achilles. Patroclus is sometimes portrayed as just a really good friend and sometimes as a lover. This is a ‘lover’ version. The first half of the novel is about Patroclus and the demigod Achilles growing up together from boyhood to young adulthood and the second half is about the Trojan War. I really enjoyed this new angle on an old story. I was turning pages in a frenzy.

Miller’s prose is just lovely: spare and simple, but poetic and evocative. I also very much enjoyed her characterisation of the clever Odysseus, who has a supporting role in the narrative. It made me want to re-read the original epics. Her new book, Circe, is definitely on my (virtual) TBR pile.

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Title: The Song of Achilles

Author: Madeline Miller

Cover design: ?

First published: Ecco Press (Harper Collins), 2011

Awards: Orange Prize for Fiction, 2012

Genre: literary fiction, historical fiction, romance

Representation: LGBTQIA+ (main characters), BIPOC (supporting character)

Suitability: years 11-12

Fyi: violence & violent deaths, sex, sexual assault

Themes: love, friendship, sexual identity, coming out, coming of age, family, tragedy, war, fate, fame

Literary features: reimagining a classic, narrative recentering, first person narrator, poetic prose

NSW syllabus: potential related text for Texts & Human Experiences (English Standard/Advanced); potential contemporary manifestation of a key text for the Related Project or for classroom study alongside the Iliad (11 English Extension 1); potential text for Literary Worlds (12 English Extension 1); wide reading

If you like this, try: The Iliad by Homer, translated by Stephen Mitchell or The Penelopiad by Margaret Atwood