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1914年，一艘遠洋客輪沉沒，當時還是嬰兒的雙胞胎Marian和Jamie幸運獲救，由蒙大拿州的浪蕩子叔叔扶養長大。Marian偶然邂逅雙翼特技飛行員，自此在心底種下對飛行的熱愛。
輟學之後，她在一名富有私酒商的資助下學習駕駛飛機，這段危險交易成就了她的夢想，也成為糾纏一生的陰影。最終，她踏上以飛越南、北極完成環球飛行的壯闊旅程。
一世紀之後，好萊塢演員Hadley Baxter接演改編Marian生平的電影，飾演這位最終失蹤於南極的傳奇女飛行員。厭倦了商業電影與明星光環束縛的Hadley，在詮釋角色的過程中，也重新尋找真正的自己。
Maggie Shipstead以恢宏格局與真摯情感，結合扎實考據和細膩筆觸，透過精采的雙線敘事，交織兩位相隔百年的女性命運，在廣闊天地與不同時代中，描繪她們對自由、飛翔與自我決定權的渴望。
After being rescued as infants from a sinking ocean liner in 1914, Marian and Jamie Graves are raised by their dissolute uncle in Missoula, Montana. There–after encountering a pair of barnstorming pilots passing through town in beat-up biplanes–Marian commences her lifelong love affair with flight. At fourteen she drops out of school and finds an unexpected and dangerous patron in a wealthy bootlegger who provides a plane and subsidizes her lessons, an arrangement that will haunt her for the rest of her life, even as it allows her to fulfill her destiny: circumnavigating the globe by flying over the North and South Poles.
A century later, Hadley Baxter is cast to play Marian in a film that centers on Marian’s disappearance in Antarctica. Vibrant, canny, disgusted with the claustrophobia of Hollywood, Hadley is eager to redefine herself after a romantic film franchise has imprisoned her in the grip of cult celebrity. Her immersion into the character of Marian unfolds, thrillingly, alongside Marian’s own story, as the two women’s fates–and their hunger for self-determination in vastly different geographies and times–collide. Epic and emotional, meticulously researched and gloriously told, Great Circle is a monumental work of art, and a tremendous leap forward for the prodigiously gifted Maggie Shipstead.
