Our Take

Maggie Shipstead's Great Circle is an ambitious, meticulously researched epic that earns its length. The novel's greatest strength is its dual structure: Marian's Depression-era aviation saga and Hadley's contemporary Hollywood unraveling speak to each other in surprising, resonant ways, each illuminating what the other leaves unsaid about ambition and reinvention. Readers who loved the sweeping historical scope of The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah or the interwoven timelines of The Great Alone will find familiar pleasures here, though Shipstead's prose has a wryer, more literary edge reminiscent of Hilary Mantel's attention to period detail. The aviation sequences are rendered with a tactile, almost cinematic precision, and Marian's voice, prickly and unsentimental, avoids the trap of turning her into a simple feminist icon. She's messier and more compelling than that. What impresses most is Shipstead's patience. This is a slow-burn novel that trusts readers to sit with two flawed, fascinating women across six hundred pages without rushing toward tidy resolution. It rewards readers who enjoy character-driven historical fiction with real heft, think fans of The Signature of All Things by Elizabeth Gilbert. If you want a beach read, look elsewhere. If you want to disappear into another century and come out slightly changed, this is it.