Great Circle: A Read with Jenna Pick: A Novel (Man
by Maggie Shipstead
At a glance
About the Author
Maggie Shipstead1 book reviewed
Great Circle
A Read with Jenna Pick: A Novel (Man
by Maggie Shipstead
LuvemBooks Verdict
Best for
Readers who relish sweeping, research-rich biographical fiction about women who defied the limits of their era, and who are drawn to metafictional explorations of how history mythologises — and distorts — such women's legacies.
Worth it if
You're willing to commit to 600+ pages of dual-timeline storytelling and want a novel that rewards patience with genuine revelation, intellectual depth, and emotional scope.
Skip if
You prefer tightly plotted, single-perspective narratives and are likely to find the contemporary Hollywood strand a slower counterweight to Marian Graves's more propulsive historical arc.
What readers & critics say
Bookshop.org notes the novel is a Booker Prize finalist and Women's Prize for Fiction nominee, named one of the best books of the year by TIME, NPR, and critical coverage, with reviewers describing it as a book that "starts high and maintains altitude." City Lights and Penguin Random House both carry the Minneapolis Star Tribune's assessment that "Shipstead's intellect and knowledge are on full display… one finds twists and surprises, unexpected connections," while Boswell Books highlights a starred critical coverage verdict calling it "ingeniously structured and so damn entertaining… as ambitious as its heroines — but it never falls from the sky."
Sources: Bookshop.org, City Lights, Penguin Random House, Boswell BooksAsk LuvemBooks
Was this helpful?
- Is it worth reading?
- For the right reader, Great Circle is among the most rewarding literary novels of recent years — a Booker Prize finalist named a best book of the year by TIME, NPR, the Washington Post, Entertainment Weekly, the Boston Globe, and LitHub, among others. Its meticulous research into early aviation and twentieth-century America is woven into the fabric of Marian Graves's story rather than worn as decoration, and the novel's architecture genuinely rewards patience. The key caveat is scale: at over 600 pages spanning multiple decades and two timelines, it asks for sustained commitment, and readers who prefer tightly plotted, single-perspective narratives may find the dual-strand design demanding.
- Similar books
- Readers drawn to Great Circle's sweeping biographical scope and dual-timeline architecture may find strong companions in the curated titles below. Wallace Stegner's Angle of Repose shares the multigenerational ambition and the question of how the past shapes the present, while Olga Tokarczuk's Flights offers a similarly peripatetic, meditative exploration of movement and freedom. Barbara Kingsolver's Demon Copperhead demonstrates the same commitment to meticulous historical grounding and the inner lives of characters caught in forces larger than themselves. Maggie Shipstead's earlier novel Astonish Me offers a shorter but thematically connected look at ambition, identity, and the stories women tell about themselves.
- Who should read this?
- Great Circle is designed for readers who prize literary ambition, historical breadth, and fiction that takes the inner lives of women seriously across decades and continents. Its ideal reader is comfortable with expansive, digressive narratives — someone drawn to sweeping biographical novels about women who refused the limits of their era, and to the question of how history shapes and misshapes such women's legacies. Its Read with Jenna selection and Booker shortlisting together signal that it works for both dedicated literary fiction readers and engaged mainstream audiences willing to invest in its scale.
- What are the main themes?
- At its core, Great Circle interrogates how women's lives and legacies are mythologized and distorted by the stories others tell about them — a question embodied in both Marian Graves's pole-to-pole ambition and Hadley Baxter's experience of preparing to portray her on screen. The novel also engages deeply with freedom and constraint, the cost of all-consuming ambition, the geography of twentieth-century America and early aviation culture, and the ways history simultaneously preserves and misrepresents extraordinary women. The Minneapolis Star Tribune identified in its architecture a quality of 'natural, boundless curiosity' that mirrors the Graves twins themselves.
- Is it a good book club pick?
- Great Circle was selected as a Read with Jenna pick, a designation that signals both literary distinction and broad mainstream accessibility — precisely the combination that makes a novel work well in book club settings. Its dual timelines, its feminist interrogation of myth-making and legacy, its questions about ambition and freedom, and its rich historical detail all generate the kind of discussion that rewards a group willing to commit to its length. Clubs that enjoyed sweeping biographical novels about exceptional women will find it especially generative.
- What awards has it won?
- Great Circle was shortlisted for the Booker Prize and nominated for the Women's Prize for Fiction — two of the most prestigious honors in literary fiction. It was named one of the best books of the year by TIME, NPR, the Washington Post, Entertainment Weekly, the Boston Globe, and LitHub, among others, and was selected as a Read with Jenna pick. Its publisher, Penguin Random House, described it as 'a monumental work of art, and a tremendous leap forward for the prodigiously gifted Maggie Shipstead.'
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Age & Reading Level
Recommended age
Adult
Reading level
Adult
Content to know about
Skip if you prefer tightly plotted, single-perspective narratives and find digressive, dual-timeline structures frustrating.
Editorial Review
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.
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