--- description: Find out why "Great Circle" by Maggie Shipstead is on TIME's list of the must-read books from this year. title: 'Great Circle' Is One of the 100 Must-Read Books of 2021 image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf80a50f1a988cbe7/6998cd3be1ba008edc98e4bd/time-hi-res.webp?branch=production&width=640&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 --- Nov 29, 2021 # Great Circle by Maggie Shipstead by [TIME Staff](/author/time-staff/) ## TIME Staff Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close  Bestselling novelist and travel writer Maggie Shipstead’s latest book is a master class in historical fiction. Shortlisted for the Booker Prize, _Great Circle_ transports us to the mid-20th century, where fictional legendary aviator Marian Graves has gone missing on her attempted flight around the world. Jumping back in time, Shipstead lays out Marian’s origin story, her passion for adventure—and flight specifically—born of compounded unlikely disasters. Alongside this timeline, Shipstead follows Hadley Baxter, a disgraced actor on a self-destructive streak who’s won the starring role in a biopic about Marian’s life. Through these two women’s richly detailed stories, Shipstead reveals the many varied manifestations of strength and heroism in sweeping, mesmeric prose. **Buy Now:** _Great Circle_ on [Bookshop](https://bookshop.org/a/4973/9780525656975 "undefined") | [Amazon](https://amzn.to/3FqaaCh "undefined") ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"Article","@id":"https://time.com/collections/100-must-read-books-2021/6120633/great-circle/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/collections/100-must-read-books-2021/6120633/great-circle/"},"headline":"Great Circle","datePublished":"2021-11-29T13:16:27.000Z","dateModified":"2026-03-02T23:59:05.706Z","description":"","url":"https://time.com/collections/100-must-read-books-2021/6120633/great-circle/","keywords":["Books","list","best books"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf80a50f1a988cbe7/6998cd3be1ba008edc98e4bd/time-hi-res.webp?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"TIME Staff","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/time-staff/"}],"creator":"TIME Staff","articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf80a50f1a988cbe7/6998cd3be1ba008edc98e4bd/time-hi-res.webp?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/collections/100-must-read-books-2021/6120633/great-circle/","name":"Great Circle"}}]}] ```