Madeline Miller’s Mestra is a short story that packs quite a punch

Madeline Miller’s latest work of fiction is 80 pages long, and its heroine is someone most readers have never met. Mestra, out since 29 September, arrives eight years after Circe and three years after the short story Galatea and returns the #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Song of Achilles to Greek myth, this time with a story the publisher calls “powerful and forgotten.”

The plot: Mestra is the daughter of the King of Thessaly, and her father is cursed. Poseidon grants her a rare gift: she can transform into any being she can imagine. Devoted to her father, she decides to use it to help him survive. But his hunger is bottomless, and the question becomes how much of herself he will take. Every transformation has a price, and the story is built around what that costs her. Soon she must decide whether to keep helping him or breakfree.

What we liked: At 80 pages, Miller proves once more that she is a literary genius. Because of its brevity, not despite it, Mestra is a fully fleshed-out character with desires, fears, motivations, and setbacks: a deeply human woman handed a fantastical gift she doesn’t know how to wield. Miller builds a compelling atmosphere around her, and the story reads like a childhood fable written for adults who will recognize themselves in it.

The verdict: You’ll need about 30 minutes for Mestra, but it will stay with you for the rest of the day and likely longer. It’s less epic and less detailed than The Song of Achilles or Circe, but it’s still a powerhouse short story and a stronger one than Galatea. If you want a quick, impactful read, Greek mythology lover or not, pick this up.

WHERE TO GET IT- You can find the e-book on Amazon or listen to the audiobook on Storytel.