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Madeline Miller Biography, Books, and Similar Authors

Author Biography  | Interview  | Books by this Author  | Read-Alikes

Madeline Miller
Photo: Nina Subin

Madeline Miller

Madeline Miller Biography

Madeline Miller grew up in Philadelphia, has bachelor's and master's degrees in Latin and Ancient Greek from Brown University, and has been teaching both languages for the past nine years. She has also studied at the Yale School of Drama, specializing in adapting classical tales for a modern audience. She lives in Narberth, PA, where she tutors and writes. The Song of Achilles is her first novel.

Madeline Miller's website

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Interview

Madeline Miller discusses her debut novel, The Song of Achilles, takes readers on a tour of ancient Greece, and thoughtfully considers the importance of myths in today's modern world.

I have loved ancient Greece since I was five and my mother began reading me the Greek myths. I was enthralled: by the larger-than-life gods, the epic adventures, and most particularly by the stories of the Trojan War, with its noble and deeply flawed heroes. "Sing, goddess, of the terrible rage of Achilles," begins The Iliad. The words resonated in me, lingering long after my mother had closed the book and turned out the light.

Years later, when I became a student of Greek and Latin, I immediately sought out The Iliad. The poetry and language were gorgeous, the story even more compelling than I remembered. I spent a summer in Greece working on an archaeological dig, and my copy of the The Iliad came with me. There, wandering in olive groves and swimming in the beautiful Aegean, I began to think of how I, too, could sing of these ancient tales.

I had always been especially moved by Achilles, and his desperate grief over the loss of his companion Patroclus. But who was Patroclus? I searched the ancient texts for every mention of his name, and discovered an amazing man: exile and outcast, loyal and self-sacrificing, compassionate in a world where compassion was in short supply. I had not thought The Iliad had a love story; I was ...

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Books by this Author

Books by Madeline Miller at BookBrowse
Circe jacket The Song of Achilles jacket
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Read-Alikes

All the books below are recommended as read-alikes for Madeline Miller but some maybe more relevant to you than others depending on which books by the author you have read and enjoyed. So look for the suggested read-alikes by title linked on the right.
How we choose read-alikes

  • Margaret Atwood

    Margaret Atwood

    is the author of more than fifty books of fiction, poetry, and critical essays. She has won the Booker Prize, the Arthur C. Clarke Award for Imagination in Service to Society, the Franz Kafka Prize, the Peace Prize of the ... (more)

    If you enjoyed:
    Circe

    Try:
    Hag-Seed
    by Margaret Atwood

  • Pat Barker

    Pat Barker

    Par Barker is the author of Union Street, Blow Your House Down, Liza's England, The Man Who Wasn't There, the Regeneration trilogy (Regeneration, The Eye in the Door, and The Ghost Road, which won the Booker Prize), Another ... (more)

    If you enjoyed:
    The Song of Achilles

    Try:
    The Women of Troy
    by Pat Barker

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