Top 10: myths retold or reimagined
Ten of the best novels inspired by Greek mythology.
- The Red Word by Sarah Henstra. Rape culture on college campuses. A reworking of the story of Helen of Troy.
- Ulysses by James Joyce / The Penelopiad by Margaret Attwood. Two retellings of Odysseus, the original hero and his journey.
- Stone Blind: Medusa’s Story by Natalie Haynes. From monster to hero. The Medusa myth revisited.
- Autobiography of Red by Anne Carson – a novel in verse and coming of age tale which brings the three-bodied monster, Geryon, into the modern age.
- Home Fire by Kamila Shamsi. This clash between society, family and religious faith brings Antigone up to date.
- The Portrait of a Mirror by A. Natasha Joukovsky. A modern novel of manners. The Narcissus myth reinvented in New York’s elite.
- Signs Preceding the End of the World by Yuri Herrera (transl. Lisa Dillman) / The Magus by John Fowles. Two retellings of the Orpheus and Euridice myth.
- Circe by Madeline Miller. Feminist reworking of the story of Circe, the Greek goddess of sorcery, skilled in transmutation, illusion, and necromancy.
- The Women of Troy by Pat Barker. Feminist retelling of The Iliad.
- Ariadne by Jennifer Saint. The bonds between women, and their shame, rejection and betrayal at the hands of men. Ariadne and Theseus retold.
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