'Circling the Sun' by Paula McLain

Circling the Sun by Paula McLain
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Paula McLain has done it again, channeled an amazing women from the early 20th century to create a lovely and affecting historical novel. Beryl Markham grew up motherless and wild in colonial Africa, was the first woman to train racehorses there, and then became the first woman to fly solo east-to-west across the Atlantic. The novel, beautifully written and thoughtfully observed, follows Beryl from girlhood through learning to fly and is framed by her record-setting flight. To me it felt like it ended a little abruptly; Markham had a long life afterward, marrying again and not dying until the age of 83. I suppose had become fond of Beryl and would have followed her story to the end. Even so, I believe admirers of McLain’s popular work The Paris Wife will also enjoy this book, as will readers of Karen Blixen’s Out of Africa, as Blixen appears as a character in Circling the Sun.

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