Paula McLain, author of the phenomenal bestseller The Paris Wife, now returns with her keenly anticipated new novel, transporting readers to colonial Kenya in the 1920s. Circling the Sun brings to life a fearless and captivating woman—Beryl Markham, a record-setting aviator caught up in a passionate love triangle with safari hunter Denys Finch Hatton and Karen Blixen, who as Isak Dinesen wrote the classic memoir Out of Africa.
Brought to Kenya from England as a child and then abandoned by her mother, Beryl is raised by both her father and the native Kipsigis tribe who share his estate. Her unconventional upbringing transforms Beryl into a bold young woman with a fierce love of all things wild and an inherent understanding of nature’s delicate balance. But even the wild child must grow up, and when everything Beryl knows and trusts dissolves, she is catapulted into a string of disastrous relationships.
Beryl forges her own path as a horse trainer, and her uncommon style attracts the eye of the Happy Valley set, a decadent, bohemian community of European expats who also live and love by their own set of rules. But it’s the ruggedly charismatic Denys Finch Hatton who ultimately helps Beryl navigate the uncharted territory of her own heart. The intensity of their love reveals Beryl’s truest self and her fate: to fly.
Set against the majestic landscape of early-twentieth-century Africa, McLain’s powerful tale reveals the extraordinary adventures of a woman before her time, the exhilaration of freedom and its cost, and the tenacity of the human spirit.
My Thoughts on Circling the Sun by Paula McLain:
In this Historical fiction memoir, Beryl Markham, born in 1902, has had a very unconventional upbringing. She was born in England and brought to Kenya as a young child. Her mother hated living in Kenya and abandoned Beryl and her father to live in England, once again. Beryl was left to wonder the vast grounds on their estate, on her own. You could even say that she was partially raised by the natives, called the Kipsigis tribe, who also live on the estate.
She learned the Kipsigis ways along with her playmate from the tribe, Kibii. He was her only childhood friend.
Due to her up bring, people thought of her as fearless. At 17 years old, her father decides to leave his failing estate and work as a horse trainer at far away estates. Beryl is given the option to go with him and his mistress or marry. As much as she loves her father, she does not get along with his mistress and decides to marry.
She soon discovers that her husband has a drinking problem and eventually leaves and becomes the first female horse trainer in Africa, at the age of only 18. Because she is female, it takes a long time for her to gain the respect she earns in her trade.
Throughout her life, she has many affairs but nothing that lasts. Her most famous affair being that with Denys Finch Hatton. She considers him to be the love of her life but he is the type who can’t commit fully to one woman and certainly is not the marrying type.
In her late 20’s, Beryl learned to fly and in 1936, she becomes the first female to fly solo across the North Atlantic from England to Cape Breton Island, Canada.
Paula McLain’s writing is nothing short of sumptuous! She brings Beryl Clutterbuck Markham back to life for us all to know this fascinating woman from history. Every time I had to put this book down, I felt like I was abruptly dropped back into 2015. I wish I could have lived in this book forever!
I found Beryl Clutterbuck Markham to be truly inspirational. I highly recommend ‘Circling the Sun’ for lovers of historical fiction and strong females, as well as those who love the backdrop of Africa. If I had to sum this novel up in one word, it would be mesmerizing.
5/5
I received the ebook version of this book via Net Galley for my honest review.
About Paula McLain:
Paula McLain was born in Fresno, California in 1965. After being abandoned by both parents, she and her two sisters became wards of the California Court System, moving in and out of various foster homes for the next fourteen years. When she aged out of the system, she supported herself by working as a nurses aid in a convalescent hospital, a pizza delivery girl, an auto-plant worker, a cocktail waitress–before discovering she could (and very much wanted to) write.
She received her MFA in poetry from the University of Michigan in 1996. Since then, she has received fellowships from the corporation of Yaddo, the MacDowell Colony, the Ucross Foundation, the Ohio Arts Council and the National Endowment for the Arts.
Her first book of poetry, Less of Her, was published in 1999 from New Issues Press and won a publication grant from the Greenwall Fund of the Academy of American Poets. She’s also the author of a second collection of poetry, Stumble, Gorgeous, a memoir, Like Family: Growing Up In Other People’s Houses, and the novel, A Ticket to Ride. Her most recent book is The Paris Wife, a fictional account of Ernest Hemingway’s first marriage and upstart years in 1920’s Paris, as told from the point of view of his wife, Hadley. She lives with her family in Cleveland.
