"Powerfully told from an all-female perspective, in A Thousand Ships Natalie Haynes gives voices to the women, girls and goddesses who, for so long, have been silent."
I've talked about this book with friends; we've been surprised by how this kind of book feels, having so long lived under the gaze of the male storyteller, and never even considered that there were women's stories to be told behind the hero stories. Excellent.

I’m in two minds about this book. I suspect the distancing and epic nature of it, the scope of what happened to many women of Troy (and some Greek) is keeping with the classical narrative from which it was taken. I liked strangely enough the story of the woman pining for her lost husband; the daughter killed for a wind and lied to, the mother who took revenge. The Trojan Women sections were not my favourite and yet… the women together and how they felt worked, likeable or not. I learned some parts of the story I hadn’t known - such as where the golden apple which started the war came from and why. The depiction of gods was clever, the muse and Penelope were also clever but felt overdrawn. But styling like it or not is what makes this patchwork story, which is undeniably well done even if I didn’t mind not returning to it the moment it was closed.

With thanks to NetGalley for the free copy in exchange for an honest review.

I will read any book that features Greek mythology so dove straight into this one which gives a voice to the silent women featured in the Trojan myths. Feminist, fiery and fierce.

Haynes has a way of making a story you think you know into such a gripping, engaging tale that you are not able to book the book down. She is witty, intelligent, and her writing makes these women feel immediately familiar. I can't recommend A Thousand Ships, and the rest of Haynes' books, enough!

A heart-stoppingly amazing book. I've been recommending it to everyone, including my students. Haynes writes beautifully, bringing to life all of the hidden women of Greek legend. Make sure you have a good stretch of time available when you sit down to read it, because you won't want to put it down.

Natalie Haynes is a brilliant writer and she brings to life a unique retelling of the Trojan wars in A Thousand Ships. I couldn’t put it down.

I enjoyed this book tremendously, it reminded me of Madeline Miller's Circe which is probably my favourite book of the last few years. It tells the story of the build up, during and after the trojan war from the point of view of the women who suffered through it all. At times it was funny and we saw some beautiful characters coming to light some I hadn't heard of and some who were just names in a story. At times it was heart wrenching and devastating, those familiar with the fate of the Trojans after the war will know what to expect. All in all it breathed fresh life into an age old tale and I would recommend to fans of greek mythology.

A Thousand Ships is a wonderful re-telling of the Trojan War with one key difference from other versions - it gives us the female perspective. I loved how this simple switch gave this book so much power, providing insight into an entirely different aspect of the war. All of the women's stories are so interesting, and I honestly don't think I'll ever get bored of these re-tellings.

I did not finish this book as I have came to realise that Greek reimaginings are just not my bag. Apologies that this is not a more thorough review. I'm sure others would enjoy it immensely.

The re-telling of the Trojan War from a female perspective, this book is remarkable and really rather brilliant. The women face their destinies with humour and intelligence. Women are just as heroic as men in history, so the book subtly tells us. Absorbing and clever - highly recommended.

I wanted to like this dearly, but clunky writing diluted the potency of these wonderful stories and I struggled to look past that. Nonetheless A Thousand Ships is a valuable book to read alongside the Homeric epics, providing insight into the women who were enslaved, murdered, and driven to madness by the Trojan War. The full tragedy of a war can be seen in how it impacts women, and Haynes imbues her characters with the full human scale of reactions and emotions that are too often circumscribed in the myths. ⁣
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Penelope gets increasingly irritable in her letters to Odysseus, especially once she catches news of his dalliances with Circe and Calypso from the bards. Clytemnestra is a heartbroken mother whose daughter, sacrificed by her father for his success at war in a shocking act of deceit and betrayal, haunts her as The Furies flicker above her palace; yet with Aegisthus she finds some sparks of happiness before Agamemnon’s return dictates their tragic end. Helen, so often maligned, is a weary victim of her own beauty who handles it with a tired resignation. These women are not just the victims of male hubris, but drivers of their own fates, and this is a wonderful rebalancing to the male focus of the myths. These women are no less heroic, strong, and flawed, even (or especially) when they are goddesses.
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#AThousandShips #NatalieHaynes

A really well written, magical re-telling. Feels fresh and new despite the (much-needed) trend in rewriting stories to centre female voices.

A Thousand Ships is a fascinating look at Greek and Trojan history, told through multiple and interlacing female perspectives. In one way, it's a miracle that Haynes manages to tell the story so capably, as there is a constant flipping between perspectives and viewpoints that could have just made the whole thing messy rather than cohesive. Instead, she manages to link all of the different perspectives together through a clever narrative structure that slowly, inexorably pushes the tale along. This is particularly noticeable in how she comes back to the tale of the Trojan Women, the group of the ruling family clustered on the beach after the downfall of Troy, so even when other segments skip back and forth in the timeline, there is always a hook as such to keep the stories grounded.

Part historical fiction, part mythological retelling, Haynes doesn't limit herself to 'real' human perspectives. So whilst there are chapters and vignettes from the women on both sides of the war, there are also chapters that are dedicated solely to the Gods themselves and I thought this was cleverly done. It added a lighter note to what could have otherwise been a dark and tortured tale of slavery, sacrifice and betrayals. Haynes has clearly done a huge amount of research in order to write this novel though, and it shows on nearly every page. From the God's bickering, to Penelope's epistolary series to her wandering husband, to the realities of living in a besieged city and having it fall around you.

My only complaint would be that with such a wide cast of characters, this sometimes falls into the trap of having vignette's where you cannot really connect to the character before you have moved onto the next one. By and large, this wasn't too big an issue as there are several key characters who Haynes keeps on returning to, but I do wonder if she has perhaps tried to do a little too much here. Removing some of the ancillary characters - or perhaps expanding them - might have allowed for a more immersive read. Periodically, when characters were mentioned in later chapters, I struggled to remember who they were and what part they had played.

I really did enjoy Haynes writing though and despite the fractured structure of the novel, felt she did admirably well at capturing different voices and perspectives. It's a novel that I will be quite happy to return to at a later date, and perhaps that will allow me to bring all of the different voices into more clarity. I particularly enjoyed the epistolary chapters, as Penelope reflects on all she has heard from the bard's as she writes to her husband who is off on one 'adventure' after another; there was a level of sass here that really stood out from the rest of the novel. At times Haynes writing is thoughtful and contemplative, at times entertaining and witty and it kept me engaged from beginning to end.

I haven't previously read anything by this author, and that is certainly a flaw I will be rectifying in the coming months. This was certainly an unusual book with a distinctive narrative structure, and whilst I had a few niggles, it is a novel that stands out from the crowd. Despite only having a flaky knowledge at best of this period of history, Haynes' retelling of events was cohesive and interesting and left me wanting more.

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for my free review copy of this title.

I really enjoyed this. Going in I was a bit wary as I don't really know much about Greek mythology but I was pleasantly surprised as I found it reasonably easy to follow (although I'm sure someone who knew more would have noticed things that I didn't!) I liked following different characters and returning to their stories throughout - this is a feature I enjoy in books, especially when the different stories overlap and I think this was a good example. I also feel like I've taken away a bit more informed about Greek mythology which is a nice bonus!

A Thousand Ships is the story of the Trojan War as experienced by the women. Greek mythology is always centred around the men - after all, it was men who original myths down (The Iliad and The Odyssey both having been written by Homer). Women are side characters who have things done to them, rather than them being the ones doing things - unless they’re a goddess or a witch. Although witches and nymphs don’t seem to come out of these stories particularly well either 🤷🏼‍♀️

I’ve always loved reading Greek myths and legends, and I’m really enjoying the resurgence of these tales. Told with a modern eye, they can tell us something about ourselves today. We still experience war and loss (there has clearly been no learning experience over the time span between Troy and the modern era), and women are still the ones who shoulder the worst outcomes during and after a war.

It was fascinating to learn about these women, and I particularly liked Penelope’s letters to her husband Odysseus, relaying information about his unbelievable voyage and rather circuitous route home: all information gleaned from bards and their songs. A sensible person would want to know how the singer got the information to write the songs!

The Trojan women sections were really where the true heroes were. These were the women who had lived through a ten year siege, lost their husbands, brothers, sons and families, and were shared as slaves amongst the conquering Greeks. And that includes the poorest as well as the richest of women - Hecabe, Queen of Troy, amongst them.

This book was on the shortlist for the Women’s Prize 2020, and it deserved to be there. I loved reading this, and I now need to read the book written before this (The Children of Jocasta - it has sat patiently waiting on my bookshelf!) to get ready for Haynes’ book about Pandora and her jar!

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for my copy of this book.

Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for an advance ARC in return for an honest review.

This is not a novel as such; it is a collection of short stories retelling the Trojan War from different point of views.

Which makes it a book that you can dip in and out off. And, reading this as an ARC on the kindle, it took some of the enjoyment of the book I would have much preferred having the physical book sitting on the night table so I could tuck into a few of the short stories at night.


Like Ladamia who could not live without her husband. Chryseis, whose father bravely bargained for her back, and caused the downfall of Agamemnon, and the very capricious Achlles. And Iphigenia whose tale I had never heard before.

Not to be read in one sitting, more a book of short stories that you can pick, put down and re-read as you wish.

A testament to the authors research skills and ability to write in different voices.

Rating: ⭐️⭐️1/2

This book starts off promising with a point of view from the diety of music and poetry – Calliope, who seem to be inspiring a poet to write the story of Troy – but it becomes an epic not from the heroes and controllers of Troy but from the victims of the War – the women and the girls.

Though I enjoyed the writing style and the over all feel of this story I felt like I lost a lot of the impact to the ever changing view point and the non-linar timeline. As a reader you never stayed long enough in one characters skin to really feel like this story had much to teach you – and so it felt like you barely had any stakes in what might happen moving forward.

Hayes has chosen to tell the Story of Troy out of the suffering of the women – very much in the same sense that Pat Barker did with the Silence of the Girls. However that is where the comparison ends. We only briefly hear of Briseis (whom is the main character of Barker’s novel) and otherwise from every other possible viewpoint. However I found some of the same issues in A Thousand Ships that I found in Silence… The story is meant to give us the women of Troy and I somehow, again, seem to find a story that tell me more about the men, just through a woman/goddess/wife/sister/mothers eyes. What is meant to be a feminist retelling – for me, becomes just another way to tell the story of the men we already know the names of.. such as Achillies and Patrocles and Paris who are yet again at the center of the story. The women become a back drop to the mens pain and their future is decided by the men they lost and the ones they now find themselves owned by.

The one character who seemed to be wholly herself and finding her own power is Helen, and we don’t even get a point of view from her even though I thought she had one of the strongest reasons to get a voice? Helen also has one of most impactful conversations with a man of power when she confronts Odysseus about his lust for her, and I think we lost out out on a vital part of the story by not seeing the fall from her point of view.

I will say that the saving grace of this story are the short paragraphs from some of the lesser known characters. Such as Calliope and Laodemia (a queen of a much smaller Greek Island whom I have never heard mentioned before in greek mythology) and also the points of view from Gaia, the Earth, and the Goddess of Strife, Eris.

I also found great pleasure in Hayes supposed reasoning behind the battle of Troy and how the Greek Gods may have found themselves at odds with eachother.

So overall, I enjoyed this book but I wish there had been more of an central plot, and a further exploration into the stories of the women who did have power in this timeperiod. Or atleast the women who took as much power as they could for themselves.

Like several other books on my TBR, I kept putting this off as the hype/buzz/respect round this title scared me. I have been intrigued over it, but I always felt intimidated at the same time. What if the book is awful and I "don't get it". Then, one day, I saw the audiobook on my library's audiobook app and I went "Sod it! Am going in!"

And I am so annoyed that it took me so long to read/listen to this as it just blew me away!

This book showed chapters/snapshots of the women affected by the Trojan War (barring Helen, though she is there): Women, goddesses, nymphs. Some of my favourite chapters were the chapters featuring Penelope (writing letters to her husband, Odysseus, awaiting his return and, as the years pass, her growing impatience, annoyance and anger at his "adventures" coming home from the war) and the Muse, Calliope (who is inspiring a poet to tell the women's stories within the war, as he is demanding to be inspired).

While this does lack some emotionally rawness and punch, this is brings something layered and rich, and at times, makes the reader go "Why are the women sidelined in grand epics? Or in general in myths and legends? Why are the women's voices silent in myths, expect to be villain or temptress?"

Because of this, I am super intrigiued/excited to read more myth retellings/reimagines such as The Silence of the Girls & Troy: The Siege of Troy Retold.

We know the tales of The Iliad, of the thousand Greek ships that landed on the Trojan plain to wage war for ten long years because a prince of Troy had seduced the King of Mycenae's wife. But this is not a book about Helen. This is a book about all the other major women, from Trojans to Greeks, goddesses to nymphs, who were caught up in their own war as Troy fell.

I can't say that this is the untold story of the women of the Trojan War, as they've been told in a number of ways, from The Penelopiad to The Silence of the Girls. The difference here is that this book is wholly about the women, with each named character taking on a voice of her own.

And I couldn't say this book necessarily tells us anything new about the women of the Trojan War, though, instead it just tells it well. It is especially pleasing to have all of these women's experiences and stories in one place. I also particularly liked Haynes' injection of humour into what otherwise would have been a particularly miserable book - especially the goddesses' squabbling over the apple and Penelope's scathing letters.

I've seen reviews criticising the lack of character in each of the women that play a role in this novel - that's not the point though. They are snapshots of the women, bottled down to their key feelings, emotions and experiences. Some readers who are familiar with classical texts (Euripides, Ovid and so on) may well say that you can gain more detail about the women, their characters and their experiences from them. However, those texts were often written, where plays were concerned, for an Athenian audience, who may have been more focused on the other messages contained in their words and actions (often to the benefit of Athens) - instead, this is those stories paired back to something more raw.

A few apt quotes from this book that I feel really echo this: 

"Men's deaths are epic, women's deaths are tragic: is that it? He has misunderstood the very nature of conflict. Epic is countless tragedies, woven together."

...

"And I have sung of the women, the women in the shadows. I have sung of the forgotten, the ignored, the untold. I have picked up the old stories and I have shaken them until the hidden women appear in plain sight."

The way we view these texts now, the women are no longer exactly hidden, but are still overshadowed by the epic and heroic deeds of names like Achilles and Odysseus. Without prioritising one story over another, this is the women's story. Under ancient social conditions, not every woman could fight with a weapon, but that is not the only way to fight.

Overall, a 4.5 star story, rounded slightly down to 4.

Natalie Haynes has long been responsible for my classical education via her wonderful Radio 4 series Natalie Haynes Stands Up For The Classics, yet I hadn't realised that she was also a novelist until I saw A Thousand Ships pop up on Netgalley. Haynes has always had a real gift for retelling ancient mythology, her passion and enthusiasm is truly contagious. Yet while contemporary retellings of female characters from legends have been popular in recent years, authors generally zoom in on one particular character. With A Thousand Ships, Haynes is refusing to be so choosy. Instead, she seeks to grant a voice to every woman connected to the Trojan war. Uniting the voices of such a disparate cast is a bold endeavour, with the obvious risk of some drowning out others. Yet Haynes keeps a steady hand on the tiller, building her characters into a chorus who question what it means to be truly heroic.

Serving as narrator is Calliope, who tells the story while also being bossed around by a poet who is unnamed but can be assumed to be Homer. The novel's opening words are 'Sing, Muse, he says, and the edge in his voice makes it clear that this is not a request'. Right from the beginning, we see what the dynamic is between these women and the men who order their lives. Even as they plead with the gods for assistance, the men expect their demands to be fulfilled. I have read reviews of A Thousand Ships which roll their eyes at Haynes' stated goal of speaking for the 'forgotten' women of the Trojan war, claiming that these women are not unremembered. Yet even when women are mentioned in The Iliad or other similar sources, their interior lives are utterly ignored. Only a very few fight in the battles, they have no agency and they function more as chattel of the male characters than actual living breathing people themselves. As Haynes points out via Calliope, 'war does not ignore half the people whose lives it touches. So why do we?'

Haynes' central thesis is that the women within in the Trojan war were not as silent as the ancient writers would have had us believe. The priestess Theano looks at her husband Antenor and knows that she would gladly swap his life, would live merrily as a widow, for the return of any one of her four dead sons. Bitterly, she snaps at him that they both know that the Greeks are hiding in the horse. Antenor responds miserably that nobody will heed his warnings. So Theano orders her husband to go and open the gates for the Greeks. If the city is going to fall, she wants to make sure that her daughter at least remains safe. I have read stories about these two characters before. Antenor, the 'noble' Trojan who advised that Helen be returned to her husband. His wife, sister to Queen Hecabe and guardian of The Luck of Troy. I knew that they were spared during the sack of Troy. The idea that it was due to Theano's furious refusal to be subjected to any further indignity rather than Antenor's treachery was an intriguing spin.

Haynes' story threads back and forth, touching both sides of the conflict. The Trojan women sit and wait for the Greeks to decide what is to be done with them, knowing that things are about to get much worse. Hecabe curses all those who she believes to have escaped. Andromache gives silent thanks that not everyone is in the same accursed situation. Polyxena asks her mother when she first knew that the city would fall. The shadow of rape hangs over them all. They think about when the Amazon fell, and so the reader hears the story of Penthesilea. Hecuba sobs out her guilt that she did not kill Paris in his cradle as the oracle advised. The tragic fate of Polydorus is uncovered. The Greeks come to coax Andromache into handing over her baby. These are dark, bleak, painful stories. Yet when the poet cries to Calliope that these tales hurt too much, the Muse responds crossly, 'It should hurt. She isn't a footnote, she's a person. And she - all the Trojan women - should be memorialised as much as any other person'.

The sting of A Thousand Ships comes from Haynes' strong emotional connection with her characters. The lurching moment as Iphigenia realises she is not walking towards her wedding. The panic as Creusa cannot get out of the city. The blood-freezing chill as Andromache realises that they really are going to kill her little son. That last one makes me cry every time. I started re-reading as while writing my review, swept along by Haynes' undoubtedly engaging prose, but it was all much harder to bear knowing what was in store. It is not that Haynes is ever gratuitous. If anything, she shies away from sexual violence, particularly in contrast to Pat Barker's The Silence of the Girls. Where Barker has Chryseis repeatedly brutalised by Agamemnon who is described grimly as 'preferring the back door', Haynes has Briseis slip the younger girl some herbs that will render the high king incapable. A Thousand Ships packs its punch in emphasising the dogged misery and grief of these women's lives. Fewer stinking latrine pits. More monologues and introspection.

I found Haynes' portrayal of Cassandra to be particularly thought-provoking. Over the years she has been slapped and scolded into keeping her voice to a whisper, her constant prophesies given no more heed than the buzzing of a fly. Even when she predicts the fate of Polydorus, the other characters quickly forget that she has done so. Her curse to be forever disbelieved is portrayed here as a claustrophobic nightmare from which she can never escape. Along with the accompanying nausea, vomiting and screaming, she it hardly makes her an appealing companion. Cassandra is another narrator within the novel however, with her visions of the future giving insight into the other characters' ultimate fates.

The tradition has long had it that the men were the heroes. The proof is in the poetry, the tales of they rode into battle. Yet Haynes points out that there is another side. There were two wronged spouses in the Trojan war. Menelaus, the cuckolded husband but also Oenone, the spurned wife. Narrator Calliope remarks that Menalaus 'loses his wife so he stirs up an army to bring her back to him, costing countless lives and creating countless widows, orphans and slaves. Oenone loses her husband and she raises her son. Which is the more heroic act?' Oenone looks at her beautiful child and wonders how his father can care so little for him. She is not the first mother to have had that thought. In the violent and uncertain world that these women live in, the act of motherhood is one of true heroism.

A Thousand Ships has its lighter moments. Snaking through the novel are the letters from Penelope to her errant husband, heavy with sarcasm and irritation. Did he really need to shout out his true name to the Cyclops? And precisely why is he living as husband to Circe? Hearing regular updates from the bards on her husband's journey home, Penelope has to contain her irritation at yet more delays. To add insult to injury, when visiting the Underworld, she hears that Odysseus asked his dead mother about his father, his son, his honour, his throne and various others and only then, remembered to ask about his wife. Odysseus is having a fine time as the guest of goddesses while his wife brings up their child and tries to keep their household together. Again - which of them is the hero?

There is courage in simply surviving. In continuing to exist despite impossible pain. The men's sufferings end as they breathe their last on the battlefield. When Andromache begs to die with her child, she is told that she belongs to Neoptolemus. Her life is not hers to discard. She is not to be permitted the escape of death. Instead she must serve the man who murdered her beautiful baby. To share his bed. To bear his child. My skin crawls at the very idea. That Andromache lived through it reveals a greater steel in her soul than many of the warriors on the plains of Troy. I was ten when I first read of what befell her. This was years before I learned that her captor had slaughtered her child. I could only ever picture her as a statue. I could not see how a living human could endure such a shift in life. To go from being the beloved wife of Hector, the proud mother of an adored child - to a slave and a concubine? And yet Haynes imagines how Andromache simply adapts. She never comes to love her captor but 'nor could she maintain the visceral loathing she had felt when he first took her from her home. It was not possible to keep hating a man with whom she lived in such close proximity.' His cruelty does not dissipate but 'circumstances forced her to find something in his character that she could tolerate'. Oh Andromache - more than any of the others, my heart aches for you.

A Thousand Ships is not a happy read. In fact, it left me emotionally drained. While the precise facts of the Trojan war are open to dispute, what is certain is that women have suffered in similar ways since the dawning of the world. Where men make war, women are treated like cattle. As in her radio series, Haynes' passionate sympathy for her subjects shines and while her perspective may seem subversive, her writing is firmly rooted in the original sources. These women were always there in the texts but they truly might as well have been statues for all the notice that the poets took. The pain of women is not the story that the world (men) want. Intelligent and insightful, A Thousand Ships sings of the valour and courage of women which is too often taken for granted. Serving as either introduction or intriguing extra, Haynes' novel is a must-read for fans of classical mythology.