NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY NPR, BOOKPAGE, AND SHELF AWARENESS • “Paula McLain is considered the new star of historical fiction, and for good reason. Fans of The Paris Wife will be captivated by Circling the Sun, which . . . is both beautifully written and utterly engrossing.”—Ann Patchett, Country LivingThis powerful novel transports readers to the … Country Living
This powerful novel transports readers to the breathtaking world of Out of Africa—1920s Kenya—and reveals the extraordinary adventures of Beryl Markham, a woman before her time. Brought to Kenya from England by pioneering parents dreaming of a new life on an African farm, Beryl is raised unconventionally, developing a fierce will and a love of all things wild. But after everything she knows and trusts dissolves, headstrong young Beryl is flung into a string of disastrous relationships, then becomes caught up in a passionate love triangle with the irresistible safari hunter Denys Finch Hatton and the writer Baroness Karen Blixen. Brave and audacious and contradictory, Beryl will risk everything to have Denys’s love, but it’s ultimately her own heart she must conquer to embrace her true calling and her destiny: to fly.
Praise for Circling the Sun
“In McLain’s confident hands, Beryl Markham crackles to life, and we readers truly understand what made a woman so far ahead of her time believe she had the power to soar.”—Jodi Picoult, author of Leaving Time
“Enchanting . . . a worthy heir to [Isak] Dinesen . . . Like Africa as it’s so gorgeously depicted here, this novel will never let you go.”—The Boston Globe
“Famed aviator Beryl Markham is a novelist’s dream. . . . [A] wonderful portrait of a complex woman who lived—defiantly—on her own terms.”—People (Book of the Week)
“Circling the Sun soars.”—Newsday
“Captivating . . . [an] irresistible novel.”—The Seattle Times
“Like its high-flying subject, Circling the Sun is audacious and glamorous and hard not to be drawn in by. Beryl Markham may have married more than once, but she was nobody’s wife.”—Entertainment Weekly
“[An] eloquent evocation of Beryl’s daring life.”—O: The Oprah Magazine
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One of the best books I’ve read in months. It’s fascinating learning about this bold woman, her adventurous life in Kenya in the 1920s and her contemporaries Karen Blixen (Out of Africa) and Denys Finch Hatton.
I am woman, hear me roar! I finished this book in 2 days, reading for hours and hours at a time. I normally max out a reading session at around the hour mark. I have trouble sitting still for longer, but not so with this book. I read, and read, and read. Circling the Sun is about Beryl Markham, who ran in the same social circles as Karen Blixen and Denys Finch Hatton of Out of Africa fame. Beryl was a woman who broke barriers. She was the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic from East to West and was a race horse trainer well before that was a kosher thing for a woman to be. She lived life to the fullest, had amazing love affairs, and was such an interesting character. This book was crazy good! If you’re into strong, groundbreaking women, check this out.
Verdict: An engaging book about a fascinating woman.
Loved the historical story of colonial Kenya – the intrigue and
romance. Great read.
First I must say that my favorite movie of all time is OUT OF AFRICA starring Meryl Streep and Robert Redford. I’ve seen the movie so many times, I think I know every line. So naturally I was attracted to a novel set during those Kenya years and featuring the real people Isak Denison wrote about. In the movie, Beryl is not very well developed as a character, and the movie-goer sees very little of her. This fictionalized account of her life based heavily in facts lifts the veil on the mysterious young girl who appears but a few times in the movie.
Needless to say, Beryl had a life equally as dynamic, tragic, and fascinating as that of the ill-fated Isak and Denys in the book, and she did not have it easy. Flying by the seat of her own pants from an early age, Beryl navigates through the strange atmosphere of colonial Kenya, her love of horses paving a way. Just an aside:
There’s one scene in the book that describes Beryl’s journey on a horse in the middle of the night that left me gasping.
The love stories are not happily-ever-after in this book, but McClain has written this novel so that the reader can come away from it satisfied. Do not hesitate to pick this one up.
Some heroines inspire you to be braver, more independent, and truer to yourself… this is exactly what Paula McLain does with aviator and adventurer Beryl Markham’s world in early 20th century Kenya. Beryl’s unconventional life makes her wild and free, but it is through heartbreaking relationships that she learns more about her true self as a horse trainer, aviator, and a woman with a deeper desire to love. I will read this book again and again as a reminder that throughout history, strong women have experienced the highs and lows of life… and brought even more beauty into the world while trusting herself and her unique path. You won’t put this one down, and you may even be tempted to book a flight to Kenya, stat.
A novel based on the true story of a remarkable woman who was anything but conventional. Growing up in 1920’s Kenya, her upbringing wasn’t going to be like that of a normal English girl. Beryl’s life turns upside down when her mother returns to England, taking Beryl’s younger brother and leaving Beryl with her father. She grows up pushing boundaries, which continues through her three marriages (two shown in this book) and her life as a woman horse racer and pilot, at a time when women would never have even dreamed of going into any profession, let alone those fields.
Much of the book deals with Beryl’s obsession with, and consequent affair with Denys Finch Hatton. (You may know the name from Out of Africa, the book written by his actual long-time mistress Karen Blixen – also a friend of Beryl’s.) Beryl adn Denys’s relationship is never something within her reach, and is heartbreaking to experience through her eyes.
When characters are “real”, and gloriously flawed, as Beryl and the rest of her circle of companions are, you are given the gift of such a satisfying and authentic reading experience, not just a story to finish. I actually have yet to read McClain’s The Paris Wife, but I am looking forward to it after reading this one!
Paula McClain, once again, shows us the beauty and dangers of an independent woman’s choices. She traces Beryl Markham’s life from childhood in Africa through Europe and back to Africa. Race horses, Princes, Lions and assorted lovers fill the pages with suspense.
Years ago a friend gave me Beryl’s autobiography ” West with the Night”, somehow in a move or two it was either lost of given away. After reading McClain’s book, I downloaded Markham’s book again. This woman is amazing, and shows Africa during a time when anything was possible.
A historical fiction based on the life of Beryl Markham, who lived in Africa during the time of the Happy Valley set in Kenya. Most of the novel was about her horse training days. It touched very briefly on her aviation adventures before the novel ends.
Paula MCLain has written an engrossing story about the female pilot Beryl Markham and Kenya in the 1920s. I couldn’t put the book down–well-written, engaging, and riveting! Everything you want to be entertianed reading a novel!
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This biographical novel gives us an intimate look at sweeping chunks of the life of Beryl Markham. McLain writes even the ugliest shades of Markham’s experience with grace.
Paula McLain has epanded and enriched the story Beryl Markham began when she wrote West with the Night. Now McLain tells parts the African bush pilot (Beryl Markham) left out … her harsh childhood, her failed marriage, and her rise to become one of the finest horse breeders in South Africa. This is an immense historical biography.
Loved reading about Beryl Markham, what an amazing woman. I had read West With the Night which was her own story thirty years but really enjoyed the detail of reading of a women growing up in such a unique environment and her fight and desire to have her own life. Very enjoyable read but caused sleepless night until it was finished.
I already wrote a review. Best book of 2014 and I still verbally recommend it whenever I get the chance.
As a result of reading Circling The Sun I rewatched Out of Africa and downloaded Beryl Markham’s autobiography West With the Night. Paula McClain wrote a wonderful book about a remarkable woman and it stayed with me.
I’m late to the party discovering Paula McLain, but I’m delighted to have found her. Having just come off reading The Paris Wife and When the Stars Go Dark, I wasn’t sure what to expect from this book. I don’t read a lot of historical fiction based on fact, and the South African setting isn’t something I’m familiar with, but all I can say is “This book is phenomenal.”
McLain’s greatest gift as a storyteller is her ability to put the reader firmly in the head of the narrator. In Circling the Sun, we feel Beryl’s pain and her passion, her strength and her all-too-human weaknesses, we see the landscape, the dirt, and mud and the dust, through her eyes…but mostly we admire a woman who lived life on her own terms, often at great personal cost, in a time when few women did that.
If you haven’t discovered Paula McLain yet, I urge you to do so. You won’t be disappointed.
Loved it.
Great story about an independent woman living in Africa in colonial period.
I thoroughly enjoyed it.
McLain is a top-notch writer. Like her LOVE IN RUINS, this too thrusts the reader into a time and world so riveting that you feel as if you have lived through the events yourself.
A wonderful glimpse at growing up in colonial Kenya.