Great Circle by Maggie Shipstead

Transworld

9781529176643

688pp

My last book of 2024, and my first book of 2025, Great Circle was picked by my bookclub as our December / January read. It has a dual narrative; one, the life story of a young female aviator in the early 20th Century, and the other, the story of the actor who plays her decades later.

Marian Graves and her twin brother Jamie, are abandoned to their uncle by their parents and grow up in Montana through the early days of the 20th Century. Marian, through a series of serendipities, decides that she wants to be a pilot, and begins her journey to being just that, but sacrificing so much on her way. In 1949, she decides to become the first pilot to circumnavigate the globe from North to South, but her plane mysteriously disappears before it can complete its circle.

Decades later in 2015, LA’s darling, Hadley Baxter, is set to play Marian Graves in a film of her life. But as she gets closer to the role, and the mysteries surrounding Marian grows, Hadley is consumed by the question: what really happened to Marian Graves?

If you loved All the Light We Cannot See, you’ll adore this book. Full of passion and derring-do, Great Circle weaves its way through the beginning of the 20th Century in America; from Prohibition to the War. Marian’s story is not a particularly nice one; a controlling benefactor, an escape, and World War II all take their toll on Marian. But she is not kowtowed by the depredations, and goes on to be a pilot to rival Amelia Earhart. When she decides to circumnavigate the globe, however, comes her downfall. Marian’s plane goes missing, and is never found.

Hadley Baxter, on the other hand, is the typical wild starlet in Hollywood. From child star, to leading role in a franchise, Hadley ruins it all with her romantic life. In a desperate bid to come back, she takes the role of Marian Graves. However, what she does not suspect is the connection she feels towards Marian, which will take her to Hawaii to uncover the truth.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book; the chapters on World War II were particularly a highlight because all seemed to be going well for Marian (despite the War), and there was even some romance in there. However, the book is a whopping 688 pages long, and that, I felt, was about 200 pages too long. A gripping tale of passion and mystery, some of it is not for the faint-hearted either. Particularly around Barclay, Marian’s controlling benefactor. However, it does keep you hooked to the end, and the resulting finale is satisfying enough to make those 688 pages feel worth it.

We chose this book in bookclub, which is slightly longer than our usual picks, for exactly that reason. We weren’t meeting in December, and so had two months to sit and read. I’m a fairly quick reader, and even this took me a little while to settle into (not helped by Christmas shenanigans). While I wouldn’t recommend it for a bookclub pick, I’d definitely recommend it for a sit-and-read-for-hours pick. It’s a dedication, picking up this book, but one that Marian and Hadley honour well.