Books Like The Song of Achilles

Why Each Pick

Circe by Madeline Miller

The obvious next step: Madeline Miller's second novel, set in the same world of Greek myth. Circe, a minor goddess exiled to an island, tells her own story over centuries, crossing paths with Daedalus, the Minotaur and Odysseus. It is less of a love story and more of a self-portrait, about a woman finding her power, and it ends on a more hopeful note.

The Symposium by Plato

The ancient source for a key idea in Miller's novel. At a dinner party in Athens, speakers including Socrates and Aristophanes each give a speech about love, and one of them holds up Achilles and Patroclus as the model of a devoted couple. It is a philosophical dialogue, not a novel, and only 128 pages, but it shows how the Greeks themselves talked about the pair.

Percy Jackson & The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan

Greek myth for younger readers, set in modern America. Percy discovers he is the son of Poseidon and is sent to a camp for demigods, where his trainer is the centaur Chiron, Achilles' teacher in Miller's novel. It is funny, fast and written for middle graders, with none of The Song of Achilles' romance or tragedy, and opens a long-running series.

The Secret History by Donna Tartt

For readers who loved the classical world but want something darker and modern. A circle of college students in Vermont studies ancient Greek under a charismatic professor and lets its ideals of beauty lead it into murder, revealed on the first page. Like Patroclus, the narrator is an outsider devoted to someone more dazzling. It is slow, literary and 559 pages.

The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid

Another great love story told by one partner looking back, and another couple whose love the world around them will not accept. Evelyn, an aging Hollywood star, reveals the truth behind her fame and her seven marriages. Like Achilles, she weighs love against lasting glory. The setting is twentieth-century show business rather than myth, and the tone is glamorous and dramatic rather than lyrical.

The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V.E. Schwab

A mirror image of Achilles' choice. He trades a long life for immortal fame; Addie trades her soul to live forever and is cursed to be forgotten by everyone she meets. Schwab writes in a similarly lyrical style about love, memory and what it means to leave a mark. It is fantasy rather than myth, moving between 1714 France and present-day New York.

Red, White & Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston

For readers who want a love story between two men that ends happily. The First Son of the United States and a British prince fall for each other while their families manage the press. It is a contemporary romantic comedy, much lighter than Miller, and shares only the theme of a devoted love under public pressure. It includes a few explicit scenes.

American Gods by Neil Gaiman

Gods walking among mortals, scheming and fading. An ex-convict named Shadow is hired by the mysterious Mr. Wednesday and drawn into a war between the old gods immigrants brought to America and the new gods of media and technology. It draws on many mythologies rather than Greek alone, and it is a long, strange road novel at 541 pages rather than a tragedy.