Great Circle: A Read with Jenna Pick: A Novel (Man Booker Prize Finalist)

After being rescued as infants from a sinking ocean liner in 1914, Marian and Jamie Graves are raised by their uncle in Missoula, Montana. Marian develops a passion for flight after encountering barnstorming pilots and drops out of school at fourteen. A wealthy bootlegger becomes her patron, providing a plane and funding her lessons—an arrangement that shapes her life as she pursues her goal of circumnavigating the globe by flying over the North and South Poles. A century later, actress Hadley Baxter is cast to play Marian in a film about Marian's disappearance in Antarctica. Seeking to escape the constraints of her celebrity status after a romantic film franchise, Hadley immerses herself in the character. Her story unfolds alongside Marian's own narrative, as the two women's lives and their quests for self-determination across different times and places intersect. The novel spans from Prohibition and World War II through present-day Hollywood, connecting Montana, London, and beyond.