Listen free for 30 days

Listen with offer

Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.
Great Circle cover art

Great Circle

By: Maggie Shipstead
Narrated by: Cassandra Campbell, Alex McKenna
Try for £0.00

£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Buy Now for £16.99

Buy Now for £16.99

Pay using card ending in
By completing your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and authorise Audible to charge your designated card or any other card on file. Please see our Privacy Notice, Cookies Notice and Interest-based Ads Notice.

Listeners also enjoyed...

The Road cover art
The Best American Short Stories 2020 cover art
Middlemarch cover art
Granta cover art
A Prayer for Owen Meany cover art
A Day of Fallen Night cover art
The Beauty Chorus cover art
The Venice Sketchbook cover art
The Best Horror of the Year, Volume 4 cover art
The Alice Network cover art

Summary

Brought to you by Penguin.

Shortlisted for the Booker Prize 2021

Shortlisted for the Women's Prize for Fiction 2022

I was born to be a wanderer.

From the night she is rescued as a baby out of the flames of a sinking ship, to the day she joins a pair of daredevil pilots looping and diving over the rugged forests of her childhood, to the thrill of flying Spitfires during the war, the life of Marian Graves has always been marked by a lust for freedom and danger.

In 1950, she embarks on her life's dream - to fly a Great Circle around the globe, pole to pole. But after a crash landing, she finds herself stranded on the Antarctic ice without enough fuel. With one fearsome piece of water separating her from completion of the Circle, she writes one last entry in her logbook. 

She is ready for her final journey.

Half a century later, Hadley Baxter, a brilliant, troubled Hollywood starlet is irresistibly drawn to play Marian Graves, a role that will lead her to probe the deepest mysteries of the vanished pilot's life.

Great Circle is an enthralling journey over oceans and continents and a drama of exhilarating power. Combining unforgettable characters and thrilling suspense, it is a sweeping story of loss and obsession, sacrifice and survival, of the unknowable mysteries of freedom, love and life itself.

©2020 Maggie Shipstead (P)2020 Penguin Audio

Critic reviews

"Ferociously clever." (Guardian)

"Joyously good." (Daily Mail)

"Impressive." (Jeffrey Eugenides)

What listeners say about Great Circle

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    612
  • 4 Stars
    157
  • 3 Stars
    42
  • 2 Stars
    7
  • 1 Stars
    5
Performance
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    549
  • 4 Stars
    132
  • 3 Stars
    34
  • 2 Stars
    7
  • 1 Stars
    3
Story
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    547
  • 4 Stars
    119
  • 3 Stars
    42
  • 2 Stars
    10
  • 1 Stars
    2

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Great Circle

Amazing book - once you understand the way the writer has split the story, present day & historic, it totally captivates you - 24 hours plus of sheer imaginative storytelling.
Highly recommend - if you find it hard going at first then stick with it as at is captivating

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Brilliant Story!

Amazing central characters, great story, very well written, what more needs to be said?

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Lovely book

What a great listen! Gripping most of the way through.
Although the modern day excepts not needed in as much detail as it detracted from what you wanted to listen about… Marian, Jamie and Caleb.
Loved the ending!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Truly brilliant

I dived deep into this story . Beautifully written. A masterpiece that I will recommend to all and re read

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Brilliant

I love the style if this author. Totally absorbing. Do not miss this. I've ridden swimming horses..that was a small highlight for me amoung many others to numerous to mention!!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Compelling, immersive and satisfying

A complex, expansive saga which feels daunting at the outset but swiftly sucks you in. The odd digression feels a little much but come the end everything makes perfect sense. Narration works well, with the two different voices separating the time lines neatly. Neither should have attempted an English accent, frankly, but luckily that's a very minor quibble. Excellent and likely to stay with me for a long time.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Great story to loose yourself in

2 Narratives that combine together as book progresses. Read the book first when it was published but enjoyment greatly added to by listening to a great audio production .
Prefer the character of Marian to Hadley but warmed to latter by closing chapters.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Narrative

Characters twists and turns relationships, suspense , past and present, language, intrigue, lesbianism, identity sensual gripping loving

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars
  • DW
  • 22-08-21

A great read

I listened to this book all the way through, I needed to rewind it several times as I missed the odd sentence. This tells me it was a really good book.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

5 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Listen before you die !

This story is told by elegant voices who obviously appreciates the richness of the writing.Life and people are not simple as we are more than our decaying bodies-this tale testifies to our complexities





Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!