Miller, M: Song of Achilles Winner of the Orange Prize for Fiction 2012

A wonderfully written story about Achilles and Patroclus. It broke my heart, I cried, I sobbed, yet I couldn't stop reading. How far would you go for someone you love? - Patroclus: yes! OH MY GOD they are so perfect! Cruel and beautiful all at once.

Nachdem ich "die Odyssee" im Kino geschaut habe, hatte ich total Lust auf MEHR. Dieses Buch wurde mir schon ganz oft empfohlen und ich kann nur sagen: Es lohnt sich zu 1000%. Sehr interessant und spannend, gleichzeitig aber auch eine tiefgreifend emotionale Geschichte mit sehr viel Charakterentwicklung. Ich konnte es nicht mehr aus der Hand legen. Absolute Empfehlung.

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.