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Maggie Shipstead

American
Maggie Shipstead is an American novelist, short story author, essayist, and travel writer. She is the author of Seating Arrangements (2012) Astonish Me (2014), Great Circle (2021), and the short story collection You Have a Friend in 10A (2022).
On LuvemBooks, we've reviewed Great Circle.
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Cover of Great Circle: A Read with Jenna Pick: A Novel
Great Circle: A Read with Jenna Pick: A Novel

4.4/5

reader rating · 17,915 ratings

Great Circle is a sweeping literary novel by New York Times-bestselling author Maggie Shipstead — a Booker Prize finalist and Women's Prize for Fiction nominee hailed as a masterpiece by critics and named one of the best books of the year by TIME, NPR, the Washington Post, and others. Its dual-timeline structure follows Marian Graves, a fictional aviator pursuing a pole-to-pole circumnavigation, alongside a present-day Hollywood actress preparing to portray her on screen. The novel is praised for its meticulous research, emotional depth, and the kind of sprawling ambition rare in contemporary fiction — though its very scale makes it demanding reading.

Reviewed Jun 29, 2026

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Olga Tokarczuk’s Flights serves as a philosophical companion to Shipstead's fascination with flight, stitching together fragments of movement, anatomy, and why humans leave.
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