Author:Olivia Manning
'Her gallery of personages is huge, her scene painting superb, her pathos controlled, her humour quiet and civilised' Anthony Burgess
'So glittering is the overall parade - and so entertaining the surface - that the trilogy remains excitingly vivid; it amuses, it diverts and it informs, and to do these things so elegantly is no small achievement' Sunday Times
'A fantastically tart and readable account of life in eastern Europe at the start of the war' Sarah Waters
The Balkan Trilogy is the story of a marriage and of a war, a vast, teeming, and complex masterpiece in which Olivia Manning brings the uncertainty and adventure of civilian existence under political and military siege to vibrant life.
At the heart of the trilogy are newly-weds Guy and Harriet Pringle, who arrive in Bucharest - the so-called Paris of the East - in the autumn of 1939, just weeks after the German invasion of Poland. Guy's lecturing job awaits, alongside friends and the ever-ardent Sophie - but for Harriet, alone and naive, it's a strange new life. Other surprises follow: Romania joins the Axis, and before long German soldiers overrun the capital. The Pringles flee south to Greece, part of a group of refugees made up of White Russians, journalists, con artists, and dignitaries. In Athens, however, the couple will face a new challenge of their own...
Magnificent ... full of wit, sharp insight and vivid description.
—— The TimesA fantastically tart and readable account of life in eastern Europe at the start of war
—— Sarah WatersSo glittering is the overall parade- and so entertaining the surface that the trilogy remains excitingly vivid; it amuses, it diverts and it informs, and to do these things so elegantly is no small achievement.
—— Sunday TimesWonderfully entertaining
—— ObserverOne must salute the brilliance ... the exactness of sights and sounds, the precise touches of light and scent, the gestures and entrances
—— GuardianI shall be surprised, and, I must admit, dismayed if the whole work is not recognized as a major achievement in the English novel since the war. Certainly it is an astonishing recreation.
—— New York TimesA delicate, tough, mesmerising epic that grabs you by the hand and takes you straight into war, flight, and a complex and vulnerable young marriage
—— Louisa YoungGlittering characterisation, sharp and eloquent writing
—— Sunday TelegraphAn important 20th-century writer who paints a complex relationship between gender and power with wit and sensitivity
—— Lauren ElkinLush and lyrical - and darkly funny even at its most gut-punching - Olivia Manning's Balkan Trilogy manages to simultaneously be a sweeping panorama of a Europe in crisis and a discomfitingly intimate portrait of a no-less-broken marriage.
—— Tara Isabella Burton, author of Social CreatureRereleased with glorious new covers ... it's an ambitious and classic series that'll utterly absorb you.
—— StylistA powerful, addictive, twisty tale where no-one can be trusted
—— David Young, author of Stasi Child , -'Note-perfect, multi-layered, rugged as a T-34 tank. Grimwood is about to become your new favourite thriller writer
—— IndependentThe writing is elegant, the dialogue razor sharp, the characters drawn economically but effectively, and the action is unrelenting
—— SciFi NowThe superior spy thriller of the year. Le Carré fans will be delighted
—— Amanda Craig , -A compulsive and supremely intelligent thriller from a master stylist
—— Michael Marshall, author of The Straw Men , -An intriguing thriller
—— Literary ReviewMesmerising, surefooted, vividly realised . . . something special in the arena of international thrillers
—— Financial TimesEven better than Child 44 . . . A blizzard of exciting set pieces, superbly realized
—— Daily TelegraphAn extraordinarily atmospheric and immersive read ... escapism at its best
—— Good HousekeepingSo atmospheric, so elegantly written . . . like Michael Connelly's Harry Bosch, or like early le Carre. I really recommend it. I just disappeared into it totally
—— Marian Keyes , -The thriller of the summer ... Grimwood raises the stakes in this dark, twisty tale
—— iPaperFact and fiction merge in what they used to call a rip-roaring yarn that is totally credible. Excellent.
—— The SunAmbitious, intricately detailed, rich and considered
—— INDEPENDENTA WOMAN'S WEEKLY BOOK CLUB READ
—— MY WEEKLYDaringly ambitious... a novel that invites the reader to immerse themselves in the sweep of history, the rich and detailed research... breathtaking
—— OBSERVERGreat Circle is an epic trip-through Prohibition and World War II, from Montana to London to present-day Hollywood-and you'll relish every minute
—— PEOPLE MAGAZINEGlitz and guts square off in Great Circle: a tale of two women set apart by a century, fighting to retain control of their own lives in a society that demands subservience. Shipstead is adept at writing so vividly, the reader can feel the thrill and pain of her characters. Cunningly crafted. . . richly layered, a joy to read . . . riveting
—— THE SPOKESMAN REVIEWMesmerizing
—— TATLERAn enthralling epic about aviation and adventure. A big, baggy blast of a book bulging with sex and drugs, taking in Prohibition-era Montana, wartime London, present-day Hollywood, painting and physics. I loved it
—— REBECCA JONES, BBC ARTS CORRESPONDENTA generous, escapist treat
—— i-PAPER, 30 BEST BOOKS FOR SUMMERA soaring epic of female adventure and wanderlust
—— GUARDIANBestselling novelist Maggie Shipstead was struggling to depict a female adventurer. So she became one. The stakes of GREAT CIRCLE are high-for its heroine, literally life or death. Though Shipstead never learned to fly herself, she aligned with her main character Marian Graves in more important ways . . . She is interested in testing her limits
—— L A TIMESRelentlessly exciting . . . My top recommendation for this summer. Shipstead's sweeping new female-centered epic intertwines the story of Marian, an aviator who wants to circumnavigate the globe with that of actor Hadley Baxter, cast a century later to play Marian in a film. What can Marian's life tell Hadley about her own?
—— WASHINGTON POSTDazzling prose in the service of an expansive story that covers more than a century and seems to encapsulate the whole wide world. With detailed brilliance, she lavishes heart and empathy on every character. She never wavers, pulls out a twist or two that feel fully earned, and then sticks the landing
—— BOSTON GLOBESwinging from one century to the next, from the moneyed splendor of cities to the shifting Antarctic ice, Shipstead's prose overflows with meticulous detail
—— MINNEAPOLIS STAR TRIBUNEEnthralling. Moving and surprising at every turn
—— GUARDIANSweepingly panoramic and immersive. An audacious epic
—— DAILY MAIL, 'Best Fiction of 2021'In a moment when our quarantined worlds have become so small, GREAT CIRCLE offers more than just wanderlust; it feels like a liberation.
—— ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLYMaggie Shipstead combines cinematic scope with a poet's eye for detail
—— THE TIMESThe beginning of Maggie Shipstead's astounding novel, a Booker finalist, includes a series of endings: two plane crashes, a sunken ship and several people dead. The bad luck continues when one of the ship's young survivors, Marian, grows up to become a pilot-only to disappear on the job. Shipstead unravels parallel narratives, Marian's and that of another woman whose life is changed by Marian's story, in glorious detail. Every character, whether mentioned once or 50 times, has a specific, necessary presence. It's a narrative made to be devoured, one that is both timeless and satisfying.
—— TIME, BOOK OF THE YEARAbsolutely dazzling
—— NEWSWEEKThrilling
—— DAILY MAILGREAT CIRCLE flew us to a different world. A book to devour
—— TELEGRAPH, BOOK OF THE YEARA sweeping saga that alternates between the life of a tenacious female aviator in the 1930s and that of a millennial film star cast to play her in a biopic. In death, 'each of us destroys the world,' the author observes - but her engrossing novel is a moving reflection on the will to survive
—— THE ECONOMISTArtfully constructed and exhuberantly entertaining
—— THE MAIL, BOOK OF THE YEARShipstead soars in this expansive, beautiful novel about women and flight
—— THE STRAITS TIMESEngrossing, ambitious, beautifully written
—— DAILY EXPESS, Summer ReadingCompletely engrossing from the very first page. You won't be able to put this down
—— HELLO MAGAZINE