An historical fiction of the life of Maria Callas, especially focused on her relationship with Aristotle Onassis, was entertaining and enlightening. Masterfully written with journeys into her past through the present in the novel, Goodwin gave a well rounded view of Maria, of Callas and of her extraordinary opera career.

A fascinating fiction retelling of a famous opera singer - I had no information about beforehand. And I loved it!
The audio included snippets of Maria's performances- so magical.
A woman's desperate need to be loved for herself while sharing her gift with the world. Well written glimpse into Maria's life.

Maria Callas is a diva on stage and off. She is the world's most famous opera singer in the 1950's. She is estranged from her mother and sister and leads a nomadic life. Being the most famous Greek in the world, she meets her counterpart in tycoon Aristotle Onassis. This historical fiction novel tells of Maria's life as an opera singer and her entanglement with the famous man.

I love that Daisy Goodwin chose Callas for her next book. I thought the life of this complicated woman was a great match for Goodwin's storytelling. I'd read another book about Callas (Jackie and Maria by Gill Paul) but this one was solely based on Callas, and I really enjoyed spending time with her thru the decades. Goodwin's book always strike the perfect balance of fact and reimagined events, and this one was well done.

Thank you to Netgalley for the advance copy for review.

Diva by Daisy Goodwin is a historical fiction novel about the life of famed opera singer, Maria Callas, and her relationship with the other most famous Greek, Aristotle Onassis.

Having not known much about Maria Callas coming into Diva, I greatly enjoyed learning about her life. Callas was born in New York and moved with her mother and sister to Greece as a child, where her family was from. They left her father behind in New York, and Maria spent her childhood trying to win her mother’s love and approval, though she made it painfully obvious she favored Maria’s sister. She grew up chubby and poor in war-torn Greece during WWII. Though she honed her talent, lost weight, and became famous, she was always worried about getting fat, wearing the wrong thing, or not knowing what to do or say in the high society circles in which she traveled. Despite her amazing talent, and recognition as the world’s greatest Soprano, Callas remained insecure.

Maria’s husband, Giovanni Battista Menenghini, whom she called ‘Tita,’ managed her career. Though she loved him, it was not a passionate love. It is only when Aristotle Onassis pursues her and captivates her with his confidence and charm (and expensive jewels), that she understands what she’s been missing. She divorced her husband and began a years-long affair with Onassis, who told her she was his soulmate but was unfaithful and refused to marry her. Their affair ended when he married Jackie Kennedy, shattering Maria’s heart.

This book provided a great deal of insight into the highs and lows, both personally and professionally, that made Maria Callas who she was. Goodwin does an amazing job bringing her to life and providing insight into why she behaved as she did.

This book was an absolute delight, and I highly recommend it to anyone who enjoys historical fiction or has an interest in learning about this fascinating woman.

Thank you to St. Martin’s Press and NetGalley for an advanced reader copy of this book in exchange for my honest opinion.

Full review will be on my Substack closer to publication date. For now, I'll just say that this compelling and sympathetic portrayal of Callas shows just how seriously she took her great gift, and how willing she was to make the punishing sacrifices it required. I enjoyed reading it and would recommend it.

Book Review

Book: Diva by Daisy Goodwin
Genre: Historical Fiction
Release Date: January 23, 2024
Rating: 3.5/5

I went into this book knowing nothing at all about Maria Callas. I wasn’t even familiar with the name. This is so surprising to me considering I was familiar with all of her peers before reading this novel. (Maria would have been 100 years old this month!)

This is a story about Maria Callas, world-renowned opera singer, and her romance with Greek tycoon, Aristotle Onassis. The story begins when Onassis married Jackie Kennady and flashes back and forth between time periods of Callas’ life. We get glimpses of her childhood, relationships with her mother and sister, her first marriage, but the novel mainly focuses on her time with Onassis. The time period for most of the novel is late 1950s thru last 1960s.

I absolutely loved reading historical fiction about the rich and the famous and their luxurious and dramatic lifestyles. Maria Callas was a very interesting and strong woman. This was an enjoyable read, but didn’t blow me away. Very much a soap opera type feel to the story, making for a perfect beach read. My favorite thing about the story is all the appearances by historical figures such as the Churchills, Grace Kelly, and Marilyn Monroe.

Thank you to Netgalley and St. Martins Press for an advances copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC: This is a bioptic novel about Maria Callas that focuses primarily on her mid-career and her relationship with Aristotle Onassis. It starts as she has just learned about his marriage to Jackie Kennedy and then chronicles her first marriage, childhood and lingers on her time with Onassis. Born in the US, her mother took her back to Greece just prior to WWII when she was in her early teens. Callas yearned for her mother's approval, but never received it. The book chronicles her work ethic, her creation of the Diva persona, her voice and her myriad experiences in society and the opera world. It was a fun read and it sparked my interest in her. Far from just being Onassis' lover, she was a world class talent, driven, and never--unfortunately--ultimately happy in her personal life. Callas has been the subject of many biographies: this book as a novel, did an excellent job of making her accessible and interesting.

Thank you for allowing me to read this book. It was very good. I will be buying when it comes out. Please allow for people to use less than a 100 characters. Thank you

I enjoyed reading this book! It was a light and fun read, loved the prose as well. Beautifully written

What a fascinating story told in multiple acts like the operas in which Maria Callas so famously performed. Maria lived a very dynamic life with extreme challenges and extreme triumphs. I didn’t know much about her prior to reading this book, but have been deep diving her life since starting it, and enjoy so much which portions of her life are present in this historical fiction and how her story was told. My heart absolutely broke for her multiple times as she faced various rejections over the story, or dealt with deep tragedies. Maria is a strong and woman whose life story I was so pleased to learn.

Wonderful! I’m not an opera fan, but I am one of powerful, successful women artists, historical fiction stories of the rich and famous like Maria, Ari and Jackie, and I’m a sucker for a love story with juicy bits. What a fun and fast read.

Maria Callas was known as the Divine One in the world of Opera. Her fame was hard won. Raised in Nazi controlled Greece by a mother who used Maria's voice for her own means. Maria has learned to protect herself from everything. She thinks she finally found someone who loves her for her, not just her voice, but will she find happiness?

Author Daisy Goodwin clearly tells the reader that this book is not a biography yet she tried to stay close to historical facts. I had heard of Maria Callas as an opera singer and romantically tied to Aristotle Onassis but learned so much more about this woman!

The book starts by giving us Maria Callas's background growing up (which always gives us a backdrop on why people are who they are) with a mother who favored her sister Jackie over her. Maria was raised to sing in the streets for money which started her on a career singing. As she was trained and learned to sing opera in languages she didn't even speak, she became one of the most well-known and loved opera singers of her time. The audiobook as clips of her singing from different operas.

Her husband was also her manager, which wasn't always easy because she could be quite "difficult", thus the title Diva! Aristotle Onassis, Greek billionaire, took an interest in her and invited her and her husband to visit him on his yacht to get away from the press. This is how she got to know him, Princess Grace, Jackie Kennedy and her sister Lee Radziwill. As most know, Onassis was quite the womanizer. Readers follow this story through her life, her career and her loves. Not knowing a lot about her, I found this story so compelling and hard to stop reading and listening to it.

My thanks to Net Galley, St. Martin's Press, and Macmillian Audio for an advanced copy of this e-book and audiobook.

Fascinating, tragic, but thoroughly entertaining. The life Maria Callas lived was filled with joy and pain. Through it all, she remained a diva.

Diva is a biopic novel of Maria Callas, focusing primarily on her love affair with Aristotle Onassis. The story had a sense of sadness about it throughout. She had a terrible relationship with her mother, who made it clear her favorite child was Maria's sister, Jackie. She had more of a business relationship than a loving marriage with her much older husband, Tito. Even when she fell in love with Onassis, he was uninterested in her musical career and was often unfaithful.

Maria Callas truly was a diva, full of charisma, intelligence, and grit. She was a passionate woman who never found the great love she was seeking. I am giving this 4 stars. I was hoping for more emphasis on her career. The story ends after Onassis marries Jackie Kennedy, and does not cover her life leading up to her untimely death.

4 operatic stars

One thing I love about historical fiction inspired by real people is the opportunity to learn something new. In this case, I learned more about Maria Callas, how she became the world’s best opera singer and her disastrous love life.

She had an interesting life path. She was born in the US and forced to move to Greece with her mother (when she wanted to attend Julliard). Her mother seemed to be a negative force and influence in her life.

She was very driven, losing weight to match her image of what a world-class opera singer would look like on stage. Her much older husband also served as her manager and, over time, took advantage of her and siphoned off her performance money.

Then she meets Aristotle Onassis, and their ill-fated love affair is challenging to read about. They are both married to other people when the affair starts. Maria longs to get married to Ari, but there are many obstacles in their path. Ari has wealth beyond imagination, and Maria finds herself in an entirely luxurious world filled with other famous people. She loves Ari passionately, but he seems fine keeping her hidden, and other women tempt him.

As Maria sings in venues worldwide, she seems to feel her career will end when her voice gives out. Her insecurities really come out even though she is beautiful, talented, and the best opera singer of the time. Then, as you likely know, Onassis married Jackie Kennedy, and the affair is over. I had really hoped that Maria would find someone else incredible to share her life with after that.

Maria Callas is a famous opera singer, the quintessential diva (hence the title). I love going to the opera, so I knew I had to read this book! I learned that Maria sang to earn enough to survive during WWII.

I loved reading about a strong woman who supports herself when so many women relied on men for survival. Her resilient character comes to life in how she deals with her first husband, Giovanni Meneghini, who is overly controlling.

Maria falls in love with Aristotle Onassis (who went on to marry (Jackie Kennedy). Through their relationship, Maria goes on to meet famous people like Princess Grace and Winston Churchill. I enjoy reading about the lives of famous people, and this novel helped me feel like I was privy to their real conversations.

The storyline fluidly travels back and forth in time. I always felt like I could keep up with where I was in the story.

I’d never heard Maria sing, so I loved doing a quick Google search and hearing her voice as I read the novel. It helped the novel come to life.

I love WWII novels, but I feel like too many are set in France or England. So learning about Greece during WWII was a treat.

I received this copy through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Diva is a historical fiction about the life of Maria Callas. The book mainly focuses on Maria's life during the 1950s and 1960s. There are flashbacks to her life when she was growing up and how she was exploited by her mother. Maria is one of the most well known opera singers and her life with her husband, Giovanni Battista Meneghini as well as her relationship with Aristotle Onassis is covered. You will read about the sacrifices that Maria made in her life to maintain her voice. Because of her popularity, Maria also had many interactions with royalties and celebrities. If you enjoy historical fiction and fictionalized biographies you will enjoy this book.

I have read a few of Daisy Goodwin books and have liked them. I have heard about Maria Callas, but didn’t know much about her besides being a great opera singer. This book really takes a deep dive into her life, and I got to know a lot about Maria. I would have read a few of Daisy Goodwin books and have liked them. I have heard about Maria Callas, but didn’t know much about her besides being a great opera singer. This book really takes a deep dive into her life, and I got to know a lot about Maria. I would have liked to know more about her life besides her love affair with Aristotle Onassis. But it being a fiction book, it was interesting. Well written and researched.
Having listened to the audio version of the book, I feel the reader did a fair job.
l'd have liked to know more about her life besides her love affair with Aristotle Onassis. But it being a fiction book, it was interesting. Well written and researched.

I quite enjoyed this book as my knowledge of Maria Callas and the opera was very limited. This book presented a woman who was a perfectionist and truly appreciated her audiences. She certainly had struggles with her family , her husband and her personal life but she forged forward .