9 books that feel like The Odyssey
Already obsessed with Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey? Here are 9 books to read next, from myth retellings to epic journeys and gods behaving badly.
Christopher Nolan has delivered another cinematic epic, emphasis on the epic. Matt Damon as Odysseus, Anne Hathaway as Penelope, Zendaya as Athena, and a Cyclops. But once the credits roll, you're going to want more.
The good news? Homer's Odyssey has been quietly inspiring some of the best fiction of the last two decades. Gods, monsters, wine-dark seas, women finally getting to tell their side of the story – it's all here. Here are 9 books that'll feel like a natural next stop after your trip to Ithaca.
(Need something to hydrate you on your heroine’s journey? We love the immersive, imaginative blends that Bird & Blend do, including their cold brew teas).
The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller
Before Odysseus even sets sail, there's Troy — and no one writes the war that started it all like Madeline Miller. Achilles and Patroclus's story is tender, devastating and utterly consuming, following the pair from childhood to the battlefield. If you left the cinema wanting more of the Trojan War's emotional wreckage (and fewer PG-13 restrictions), this is your next read.
The Silence of the Girls by Pat Barker
Homer's epics are full of women who exist mostly as prizes, obstacles or footnotes. Pat Barker fixes that. Told from the perspective of Briseis, a queen turned captive after the fall of her city, this is Troy stripped of its glory and rebuilt from the ground up by the women who lived through it. Sharp, unflinching, and impossible to put down.
A Thousand Ships by Natalie Haynes
Why settle for one woman's perspective when you can have all of them? Natalie Haynes weaves together the voices of the wives, mothers, priestesses and goddesses who shaped the Trojan War, proving that the "women behind the men" were running the whole show the entire time. Funny, furious and genuinely moving.
The Penelopiad by Margaret Atwood
While Odysseus gets the ten-year odyssey, Penelope gets twenty years of suitors, gossip and a very unravel-y bit of weaving. Margaret Atwood hands the mic to the woman who waited, and it turns out she has plenty to say — dry, witty and not nearly as patient as the myths would have you believe.
Ithaca by Claire North
Back home, while Odysseus is off fighting monsters, Ithaca isn't exactly thriving. Claire North reimagines the island through the eyes of Penelope and the women around her, navigating suitors, politics and survival with nothing but cunning and each other. A slow-burn, richly atmospheric read for anyone who wanted more of what was happening back home in the film.
Ariadne by Jennifer Saint
Technically a different myth, same unforgettable energy. Ariadne helps a hero defeat a monster, only to discover that being a footnote in someone else's legend comes at a devastating cost. If Nolan's gods-and-monsters spectacle left you craving more mythology with real emotional stakes, start here.
Lavinia by Ursula K. Le Guin
Lavinia barely gets a line in Virgil's Aeneid: the epic that essentially picks up where The Odyssey leaves off. Ursula K. Le Guin gives her a full, richly imagined life instead, blurring the line between myth and reality in a way that feels almost otherworldly. Quiet, strange and completely absorbing.
Piranesi by Susanna Clarke
Not a retelling, but a spiritual cousin. A man wanders an endless, labyrinthine House filled with statues and tides, piecing together fragments of who he is and how he got there. If the disorientation and wonder of Odysseus's journey through strange lands is what stuck with you most, this one will get under your skin in the best way.
Ransom by David Malouf
A slim, devastating novel set in the final days of the Trojan War, as a grieving King Priam sets out to ransom his son Hector's body from Achilles. It's less about spectacle and more about grief, mercy and what it means to be human in the middle of a war that's already mythic. Short, but it'll stay with you.
Whether you left the cinema wanting more war, more Penelope, or more of that particular awe that only Greek myth seems to capture, there's something here to keep the Odyssey spell going a little longer. Happy reading (and safe sailing - make sure you’ve got your Holafly eSIM before you embark).
p.s. If your TBR needs even more recommendations, read more of our articles linked below!
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