Circe

Circe is best known for turning Odysseus's men into pigs when they landed on her island on their journey back from the Trojan War, and then being persuaded by Odysseus to change them back again. She was the daughter of the Titan Helios and a nymph in Greek mythology. She fell in love with a mortal sailor, Glaucus, and turned a fellow nymph, Scylla, into a sea monster (who also appears in the Odyssey), out of jealousy. Madeline Miller's book is a retelling of Circe's story from the point of view of Circe herself.

I've often wondered why the stories of the Greek gods always portray them as so invested in mortals— not only invested in what mortals are doing in general, but often having favorites among mortals, as Odysseus was a favorite of Athena's. This book offers an answer I hadn't thought of, as it looks at an immortal woman's struggle to grow and make a satisfactory life for herself. Mortals have something that the gods don't: an arc of story, rather than a continuous line of episodes following each other without end. On one hand, since it's us mortals telling the story, we may just be consoling ourselves that even though we have to die, we've really got the better deal. On the other hand, it's interesting. Does an immortal life have meaning?