Even if you already know the storyline of the Iliad and what’s about to happen, ‘A Song of Achilles’ still makes for a gripping read. The story starts slow but it’s an amazingly detailed world you enter. The tension drops in the middle, but the pace picks up near the end, and I couldn’t put it down anymore. The story unfolding feels like watching a tragic opera, and the writing from Miller fits perfectly with this; poetic and observative on a lot of small details. It’s a refreshing perspective on the Iliad.

The story is written from the point of view of Patroclus, who is — much like Circe in Madeline Miller’s other book — an outcast and uncertain of his own place in the world among gods and demigods. The characters deal with prophecies and their personal feelings. And when the story is done, you can only deeply feel for them. Perhaps this is what books are for. When we live the world through another person’s thoughts, and fully understand that person, we can only love that person. Which makes A Song of Achilles yet all the more tragic. Beautiful, yet tragic.