The Song of Achilles is a retelling of the events of Homer’s Iliad, as told from the perspective of Patroclus. In Homer, Patroclus was a childhood friend and close wartime companion of Achilles. Later Greek authors, including Aeschylus and Plato, as well as Shakespeare (in Troilus and Cressida) brought out the implicit romantic relationship between the two characters, and it’s this aspect that Miller focuses on for her adaptation of the story.  

Fugitive Pieces is a novel in two sections, each focusing on a character's attempts to deal with trauma and loss relating to the Holocaust. Its first and longer section focuses on Jakob Beer, who as a 7-year old is the only person in his town to survive a round-up of Jews by invading Nazis. He is found by a Greek archaeologist, Athos Roussos, who take him into his care, moving him secretly to Zakynthos in Greece.