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Mestra: A Short Story

by Madeline Miller

A myth of transformation and obligation

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AlbakiReads Editorial

A myth of transformation and obligation

Mestra’s gift from Poseidon—to take the form of any being she imagines—offers a way to respond to her father’s curse: an insatiable hunger imposed by Demeter. The short story frames that aid as a question of limits, as Mestra weighs her devotion to her father against the possibility of freeing herself. Its mythological premise brings together transformation, family obligation, and the cost of sustaining someone whose need has no apparent end.

Good fit for readers who enjoy

  • For readers interested in Greek mythology reimagined in short fiction.
  • For those drawn to stories about family duty, self-determination, and transformation.

Themes

Greek mythologyTransformationFamily obligationSelf-determination

Based on publisher information and book metadata.

Book overview

A brilliant new short story from the #1 New York Times bestselling author Madeline Miller--her first new work of fiction since the publication of Circe--that vibrantly reimagines the powerful and forgotten myth of Mestra.

A cursed father, a gifted daughter

Mestra, daughter of the King of Thessaly, is granted a unique gift by Poseidon: The ability to transform herself into any being she can imagine.

Her father, on the other hand, is cursed. As punishment for disrespecting the goddess Demeter, he is in possession of an unnatural, insatiable hunger. Devoted Mestra suggests using her new gift to help her father. But if his hunger is bottomless, how much will he take from her? Soon she must decide: Will she keep helping her father survive or finally break free?

A jewel-like tale of human fallibility, and her first new work of fiction since the publication of Circe, Mestra confirms Madeline Miller as our high priestess of mythology.

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