SHORTLISTED FOR THE BOOKER PRIZE 2021
I WAS BORN TO BE A WANDERER
From the night she is rescued as a baby out of the flames of a sinking ship; to the day she joins a pair of daredevil pilots looping and diving over the rugged forests of her childhood, to the thrill of flying Spitfires during the war, the life of Marian Graves has always been marked by a lust for freedom and danger.
In 1950, she embarks on the great circle flight, circumnavigating the globe. It is Marian's life dream and her final journey, before she disappears without a trace.
Half a century later, Hadley Baxter, a brilliant, troubled Hollywood starlet is irresistibly drawn to play Marian Graves, a role that will lead her to probe the deepest mysteries of the vanished pilot's life.
Review
Luminous, masterful ... glides seamlessly through the 20th century immersing the reader. Tremendously well-written. ― TELEGRAPH
A gripping historical adventure that feels sharp, fresh and modern ― STYLIST MAGAZINE
This is truly exceptional storytelling, combining a sweeping arc of history with writing that, at sentence level, is near-flawless ― BOOKSELLER, A Fiction Pick of the Year
Effortlessly woven... deserves to be savoured slowly ― EVENING STANDARD
Shipstead turns phrases and observes people beautifully. Full of adventure, passion and tragedy... a glorious tribute to women who push the boundaries of their one, brief life, breaking the bonds of their place in history and their female bodies, to soar higher and faster than others; and the price they pay to live so fast ― THE TIMES
Impressive and gripping ― SUNDAY TIMES
Accomplished and ambitious... Most novelists have their limits and cut their cloth accordingly. Shipstead is a writer who can vividly summon whatever she chooses, taking the reader deep inside the world she creates. ― FINANCIAL TIMES
Rocked by the cool cadences of Shipstead's prose, readers will embark on a journey through time and space. Across 600 pages, they'll link arms with its characters as they stroll along the decks of early-1900s ocean liners, then board private jets to eavesdrop on the poolside parties of 21st-century Hollywood. They'll spot eagles arcing over the wild frontiers of Prohibition-era America then feel the lonely, existential chill of the white expanses of Antarctica - in between city breaks in Europe and Australia ― INDEPENDENT
A gorgeous soaring story that takes flight from the very first page ― SUNDAY EXPRESS
What's so impressive is how deeply we care about each of these people, and how the shape and texture of each of their stories collide to build a story all its own. GREAT CIRCLE grasps for and ultimately reaches something extraordinary ― NEW YORK TIMES
This wonderful novel weaves together the story of two women: a female aviator who goes missing in the1950s and the Hollywood star playing her in a film in the present day. A commitment that rewards with memorable characters and vivid storytelling ― GOOD HOUSEKEEPING
GREAT CIRCLE is a novel of our insatiable need to stare down the terrible, magnificent vastness of it all: love, war, desire, fear ... A sweeping, swashbuckling book, full of oversaturated colour and grand destiny. The joy of this dynamic, soaring novel is not a welcome extra but its very engine ― TIMES LITERARY SUPPLEMENT
The Marian portions rove from Montana to Manhattan to Scotland and Antarctica, and read like a carnival of early-20th-century American history, packed with bootleggers, treacherous boxcar rides, and tragic shipwrecks. The Hadley chapters offer a delectable dissection of life as a celebrity, serving up an intelligent skewering of the Hollywood machine and allowing the book to take flight ― VOGUE
Underpinning it all is a reverence for nature, thrumming in the forests of Montana, the jagged peaks of Alaska and the stupefying ice shelves of the Antarctic. Exhilarating, masterful depictions ... invites readers to contemplate both magnitude and majesty ― BOOKPAGE [Starred review]
A clever, poignant story about ambition, love and sacrifice that'll completely draw you in ― COSMOPOLITAN MAGAZINE
One of the most hotly anticipated novels of the spring ― MARIELLA FROSTRUP, TIMES RADIO
Vast and entrancing ― BA HIGH LIFE
Nothing short of brilliant ― OPRAH DAILY
Grand, audacious and completely engrossing ― DAILY MIRROR
This ambitious, wide-ranging and psychologically insightful novel is a tour-de-force ― DAILY EXPRESS
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Review
Luminous, masterful ... glides seamlessly through the 20th century immersing the reader. Tremendously well-written. ― TELEGRAPH
A gripping historical adventure that feels sharp, fresh and modern ― STYLIST MAGAZINE
This is truly exceptional storytelling, combining a sweeping arc of history with writing that, at sentence level, is near-flawless ― BOOKSELLER, A Fiction Pick of the Year
Effortlessly woven... deserves to be savoured slowly ― EVENING STANDARD
Shipstead turns phrases and observes people beautifully. Full of adventure, passion and tragedy... a glorious tribute to women who push the boundaries of their one, brief life, breaking the bonds of their place in history and their female bodies, to soar higher and faster than others; and the price they pay to live so fast ― THE TIMES
Impressive and gripping ― SUNDAY TIMES
Accomplished and ambitious... Most novelists have their limits and cut their cloth accordingly. Shipstead is a writer who can vividly summon whatever she chooses, taking the reader deep inside the world she creates. ― FINANCIAL TIMES
Rocked by the cool cadences of Shipstead's prose, readers will embark on a journey through time and space. Across 600 pages, they'll link arms with its characters as they stroll along the decks of early-1900s ocean liners, then board private jets to eavesdrop on the poolside parties of 21st-century Hollywood. They'll spot eagles arcing over the wild frontiers of Prohibition-era America then feel the lonely, existential chill of the white expanses of Antarctica - in between city breaks in Europe and Australia ― INDEPENDENT
A gorgeous soaring story that takes flight from the very first page ― SUNDAY EXPRESS
What's so impressive is how deeply we care about each of these people, and how the shape and texture of each of their stories collide to build a story all its own. GREAT CIRCLE grasps for and ultimately reaches something extraordinary ― NEW YORK TIMES
This wonderful novel weaves together the story of two women: a female aviator who goes missing in the1950s and the Hollywood star playing her in a film in the present day. A commitment that rewards with memorable characters and vivid storytelling ― GOOD HOUSEKEEPING
GREAT CIRCLE is a novel of our insatiable need to stare down the terrible, magnificent vastness of it all: love, war, desire, fear ... A sweeping, swashbuckling book, full of oversaturated colour and grand destiny. The joy of this dynamic, soaring novel is not a welcome extra but its very engine ― TIMES LITERARY SUPPLEMENT
The Marian portions rove from Montana to Manhattan to Scotland and Antarctica, and read like a carnival of early-20th-century American history, packed with bootleggers, treacherous boxcar rides, and tragic shipwrecks. The Hadley chapters offer a delectable dissection of life as a celebrity, serving up an intelligent skewering of the Hollywood machine and allowing the book to take flight ― VOGUE
Underpinning it all is a reverence for nature, thrumming in the forests of Montana, the jagged peaks of Alaska and the stupefying ice shelves of the Antarctic. Exhilarating, masterful depictions ... invites readers to contemplate both magnitude and majesty ― BOOKPAGE [Starred review]
A clever, poignant story about ambition, love and sacrifice that'll completely draw you in ― COSMOPOLITAN MAGAZINE
One of the most hotly anticipated novels of the spring ― MARIELLA FROSTRUP, TIMES RADIO
Vast and entrancing ― BA HIGH LIFE
Nothing short of brilliant ― OPRAH DAILY
Grand, audacious and completely engrossing ― DAILY MIRROR
This ambitious, wide-ranging and psychologically insightful novel is a tour-de-force ― DAILY EXPRESS
