The Song of Achilles

I could cry just thinking about them... This is everything it promises to be and more, tragic, poetic, and of course absolutely heartwrenching!! “I could recognize him by touch alone, by smell; I would know him blind, by the way his breaths came and his feet struck the earth. I would know him in death, at the end of the world.”

When stories that are rooted deep in the public conciousness get retold, there is two good ways to do it: deviate wildly or stay completely and utterly true to the original. Madeline Miller chose to do the latter, and I have rarely seen it done that well. Every word resonates with the epocality of the story, to the point where it scares even the characters themselves. The author chose to stay as close to the original myth as it can be reconstructed, including the morals and mannerisms of Ancient Greece. This novel only deals in absolutes: absolute love, absolute commitment, absolute inevitability, absolute tragedy. That makes it more than a gay love story, more than a myth retelling. The characters, supposed heroes and godlikes, are flawed and deeply human and so very much like us, so much so that the story feels like a mirror to our own world and our own devotions. And if there is one universal truth to take away from the book, it is this: Every victory comes at a cost - and some are worth paying for, no matter how high the price.

In this book, Madeline Miller tells the incredibly beautiful and tragic love story of Patroclus and Achilles, how it developed before and during the Trojan War. The book is definitely for anyone interested in Greek mythology and queer stories. You'd better have your tissues ready, because tears are guaranteed.

Wer sich mit griechischer Mythologie auskennt, weiß, wie diese Geschichte endet, und trotzdem schafft Madeline Miller es, sie ganz neu zu erzählen. Aus der Sicht von Patroclus erleben wir, wie er und Achilles aufwachsen, erst zu Freunden, dann zu Liebhabern werden und im Trojanischen Krieg kämpfen. Romantische Momente und ein wunderschöner Schreibstil treffen hier auf Krieg, Gewalt und die Gewissheit eines tragischen Schicksals. Tränen garantiert.

This book is perfect at drawing you in. Patroclus is a character I could really identify with. He gave me a story full of love, friendship, loss, hope, courage, fear and much more. If there's one thing Madeline Miller can do, it's capture people's emotions and make them cry.