The Eights

By: Joanna Miller

Narrated by: Alix Dunmore

They knew they were changing history.

They didn’t know they would change each other.

Following the unlikely friendship of four women in the first female class at Oxford, their unshakeable bond in the face of male contempt, and their coming of age in a world forever changed by World War I.

“Entertaining and moving…I came to love these four women as though they were my sisters.”—TRACY CHEVALIER, #1 New York Times bestselling author

Oxford, 1920. For the first time in its one-thousand-year history, Oxford University officially admits female students. Burning with dreams of equality, four young women move into neighboring rooms in Corridor 8. Beatrice, Dora, Marianne, and Otto—collectively known as The Eights—come from all walks of life, each driven by their own motives, each holding tight to their secrets, and are thrown into an unlikely, unshakable friendship.

Dora was never meant to go to university, but, after losing both her brother and her fiancé on the battlefield, has arrived in their place. Politically-minded Beatrice, daughter of a famous suffragette, sees Oxford as a chance to make her own way—and some friends her own age. Otto was a nurse during the war but is excited to return to her socialite lifestyle in Oxford where she hopes to find distraction from the memories that haunt her. And finally Marianne, the quiet, clever daughter of a village pastor, who has a shocking secret she must hide from everyone, even her new friends, if she is to succeed.

Among the historic spires, and in the long shadow of the Great War, the four women must navigate and support one another in a turbulent world in which misogyny is rife, influenza is still a threat, and the ghosts of the Great War don’t always remain dead.

©2025 Joanna Miller (P)2025 Penguin Audio

Critic reviews

A Goodreads Most Anticipated Book of Spring
A Book Riot Best Historical Fiction of April
A Brit & Co. New April Book to Add to Your Calendar STAT

“A story about women taking their place in a man’s world, The Eights beautifully captures the power of friendship and love in the wake of extraordinary loss. It was a pleasure to read.” —Pip Williams, New York Times bestselling author of The Dictionary of Lost Words

“Miller’s engrossing debut follows the first women undergraduates eligible to earn degrees at Oxford University. …. They’re unlikely allies, a novelistic trope that Miller transcends through insightful and surprising characterizations…. It’s a memorable tale of a fast-changing world.” —Publishers Weekly

“Miller describes campus life in vivid detail, and her protagonists are complex, with hidden motivations and insecurities that are gradually revealed as their friendships develop. This pairs well with Helen Simonson's The Hazelbourne Ladies Motorcycle and Flying Club and Kate Quinn's The Briar Club."
—Booklist

Women who don't feel strong or competent but are

I enjoyed this read very much. Essentially it was an observation of four young women developing a deep friendship as they navigated being the first class of women at Oxford. Each was grappling with something (parental expectation or censure, a secret, social mores, and/or recovering from what they saw or had been treated (as women) during WW one. The narration was superb.

Characters including Oxford.

The author is very good at placing me at Oxford in 1920, enjoying all the challenges of young scholars