We’re straight back on the beaches at Troy for Barker’s second book in this series, rewriting the classic Homerian epic from the perspective of the lesser characters, particularly the women, who are all too often silent in these histories. The story opens at the nail-bitingly, viscerally cinematic pivot point of the ten-year Trojan War, where the wooden horse containing the Achaean fighters is wheeled inside the city’s gates. We’re given a glimpse of what really occurs at the death of Priam, the King of Troy, before the “exploits run from mouth to mouth and no doubt grew in the telling” – then returning to Agamemnon’s camp and the mind of Briseis, once a minor royal, now enslaved alongside the other women whose communities fell to these rampaging armies. She is pregnant, carrying the child of now-dead Achilles, and was swiftly married to his ally Lord Alcimus upon the warrior’s death, which has made her a free woman – saving her from a position stuck on the lowest possible rung of the ladder and giving her the ability to move around the camp, taking us with her as she goes. Despite victory, the Achaean forces are trapped on the beaches by the winds with no hope of returning home, and resentment building with every day that passes - yet with King Priam’s rotting body lying unburied, dishonoured on the dunes, will the Gods ever allow them to return home? Barker expertly balances the domestic with the divine, giving us more of her addictive, alternative accounts of historically-accepted versions of events. Although Troy’s siege is said to have happened over three thousand years ago, hearing Briseis’s innermost thoughts, fears and hopes make the events feel timeless - which is how you know this series deserves its inevitable status as a modern classic.

Featured in June’s Book Club in Cambridge Edition Magazine – thanks to #NetGalley for the advance copy! https://online.bright-publishing.com/view/765983352/15/

I love Greek Mythology. Whether it comes in the form of an epic children's adventure like the Percy Jackon series, a teen angst fest like "Starcrossed" or something spellbinding like "Circe"...I am totally here for it. Pat Barker's "The Silence of the Girls" was one of my favourites of the many retellings I've read over the years. It was brutal yet beautiful and unsurprisingly so too is "The Women of Troy".

Told during the time after Troy had fallen, when the Greeks were prevented from sailing home in glory by angry, vengeful winds, we follow Briseis once again as she navigates a new set of trials and tribulations now that she's married to Alcimus and no longer a slave. Briseis is still our main narrator and it's her quiet resilience and support towards the women of the camp that I like most about this book. I also enjoyed the new glimpses into life after the war through Calchus and Pyrrhus's POV that offered a different flavor to the story.

Although I was never expecting or really even needing a sequel to "The Silence of the Girls" I have thoroughly enjoyed this installment and can't help but want another to follow Briseis now that they've left behind the shores of Troy.

Thank you NetGalley and Penguin General for providing me with a free digital copy in exchange for an honest review.

Troy has fallen and the Greeks have won the bitter battle. Briseis is now living in the Greek encampment but there is still danger everywhere.

I absolutely loved this book even more so than The Silence of the Girls and would recommend to anyone!

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for a copy of the book in exchange for an honest review

I absolutely adored the Silence of the Girls. It was one of my favourite reads of the year, so to find out there was going to be a sequel had me excited and nervous. I usually don’t have a good record with sequels, as most of the time the story didn’t need to continue, or like with Call Me by Your Name’s sequel Find Me, it meanders to milk more money, but I was still optimistic. After the fall of Troy, Barker promised to paint a picture of what life was like for the women who had to survive after losing everything.

But, sadly, it was a bit if a bland picture. There’s a reason no one really focuses on the aftermath of the fall of Troy, because what else can you say?

This book drags. We still get Briseis’s perspective, but all she does is meander and have conversations with other people, but it doesn’t have much narrative “point”. It illustrates the hardships the women of Troy must face, focusing on their pain and struggles, but Silence of the Girls portrayed that better, and with a more engaging story. This novel feels like filler, one that didn’t need to exist or justify it being there.

Also, for a book that is supposed to be focusing on the female perspective, Barker using the perspective of two men doesn’t really fit right.

However, I can’t say I was bored reading it. Barker’s writing is engaging and draws you in, so I was still invested, but I wished the story was more focused or had a plot arc. I would still recommend it, as Barker proves herself talented, but I wouldn’t say it was a necessary read if you loved Silence of the Girls.

This book is the sequel to The Silence of The Girls. It takes up at the end of the Trojan War, as the Greeks present the Horse to Troy, with elite warriors secreted inside. It's a modern-day telling of part of the ancient myth The Ilian written by Homer. The story is told mainly through the eyes of Pyrrhus, son of Achilles, trying in vain to live up to the reputation of his now-dead father, and Briseis, widow of Achilles and now wife of Alcimus. It revolves around Pyrrhus' slaughter of the king of Troy, Priam, and the disrespect shown to his body, exploring themes of reciprocity in the classical world. Enslaved Trojan girl sees it as her duty to bury his remains incurring the rage of Pyrrhus, who has is a violent, unstable young man. The greeks are stuck in Troy. Since Priam's murder, the wind has howled around the city meaning the ships have been unable to leave. Questions arise around the end of the war - have their actions displeased the Gods?

I really enjoyed this book. Although I have a copy of the previous book, I haven't read it yet, but found that I got into this one no problem, if you have a bit of knowledge of Greek myth. The language is very accessible and easy to read. I would like to see Pat Barker explore other episodes of the Iiad. I'm really enjoying these retellings of history and myth from a female angle, as we know that the vast majority of both are written through a male lens.

Pat Barker picks up from The Silence of the Girls, giving continuing voice to the silenced women, after the Greeks have emerged victorious from the terrors of the war with the fall of Troy, with all the males wiped out and King Priam left unburied. Laden with the spoils of war, the treasure, the women and the weaponry, they are unable to set off, prevented by the weather, an expression of the gods unhappiness. The scene is set for tensions, conflicts, feuds, suspicions, violence and frustrations to arise among the men as they drink copiously. We get some insights into male perspectives, such as that of Achilles's son, Pyrrhus, an insecure boy, feeling the pressure of his father's legacy. This novel can feel a little underpowered in comparison to the previous book, but it provides a more nuanced picture that illustrates that the dangers of peace can be as unnerving and troubling as war.

Briseis remains the narrator, having been the prize trophy of the now dead Achilles, she finds herself married to Alcimus, carrying Achilles's child. She is now a woman of status, but feeling a connection with the enslaved women, doing what she can to bring them together, looking to forge alliances. The traumatised, despairing and grieving women, are feeling powerless, resentful, anger, fear, humiliated, struggling to adjust to their circumstances and Barker excels in portraying women who have complicated and differing responses. This is a story of Briseis, the practicality of her nature in dealing with all that that has been thrown at her, this is at the heart of her approach to her current position, of women, their resilience, their ability to survive the most desperate, harrowing and precarious of situations. Highly recommended. Many thanks to the publisher for an ARC.

The Women of Troy was thought provoking and emotional there was no glossing over or sugar coating the harsh realities of what women faced during this era at the hands of men.
Fantastic book I highly recommend it.

The Women of Troy starts off where the magnificent Silence of the Girls ends. Troy has fallen, Achilles is dead and Briseis (the woman who was given to him as a war trophy) is pregnant with his child. She has been married off to Alcimus and thus has gained much status. The Greeks are desperate to return home but a wind has blown up making sailing impossible. And so the greek warriors fulminate and fight, getting drunker and drunker while the women of Troy are abused by them.

It took me a little while to get into this book perhaps because it started off with the viewpoint of a man and this jarred a little. However it moves quickly on to show us what life is now like for Briseis. She is uneasy in her new role and spends much of her time with the slave girls. The rest of her time she spends with Almina who is determined to bury the body of the former king, Priam and trying to forge a reconciliation between Hecuba and Cassandra.

Although I enjoyed this book, I didn't find it as fresh or as engaging as The Silence of the Girls. I'm not sure why. Perhaps it was the fact that not much happens or perhaps it was that there is quite a bit of repetition in it. It's still a good read but it doesn't have the brilliance of the former novel. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.

We have just begun teaching Classical Civilisation at A Level again and so it is brilliant to see so many retellings being released. Pat Barker has written yet another superb reimagining of life as told through the perspective of the widow of Achilles. I loved the comments made about how futile violence is and male violence. So much to explore and what will be a valuable addition to the school library!

Much like Lisa Taddeo's Animal, this is about the violence of men and the resilience of men. The Women of Troy takes up the story from when the wooden horse is used to sack Troy.
Almost all of the men behave like savages: slashing, raping, drinking and fighting. The pointlessness of violence is laid bare.
Briseis is the main character: a strong woman determined to survive and support her fellow women. Pyrrhic is Achilles's stupid son. He has no humanity, and I was sad to see him survive where better men died.

*3.5 stars

Thank you to Netgalley for providing an e-arc.

I enjoyed this enough however I definitely felt that this was not as good as The Silence of the Girls. I'm not sure if this is because I knew the story of Troy really well and had never really focused on anything that happened after the Greeks won the war but this story just didn't feel like it did anything or went anywhere. I was hoping this was going to be about Briseis back in Greece having to adjust to a new life away from Troy but instead it felt very much like just waiting around, waiting for something to happen.

If Pat Barker decides to write a follow up about Briseis in Greece though, I would definitely be interested in picking it up.

If you like Greek mythology this is the book for you.
A story of life told by the widow of Achilles, the greatest warrior ever, following the Trojan wars.
The women are treated very poorly but they learn to survive by banding together.
I not only enjoyed it but learnt a lot about the ancient Greeks, even though this is mythology.

The war is over. Troy has fallen. Achilles is dead.

But life goes on for Briseis; life and pain. She is no longer a slave. Her new status is defined by Achilles’ child growing inside her and the wedding vows that his right hand man Alcimus swore to her. Yet she feels no freer than she did before, no less trapped, no less alone, no less scared. All she can do to fight against these feelings is to make sure that the Trojan women, the new slaves ‘earned’ by the sacking of Troy, are safe and cared for.

There is Amina, angry and defiant and determined to bury Priam’s body. There is Hecuba, Priam’s proud wife, who is in denial and acts as though she were still Queen. There is Cassandra, half mad and predicting the tragic deaths of those who wronged her. There is Andromache, recently childless, who seems to have given up all hope. There is even Helen, not quite Greek and not quite Trojan, back where she started and caring for nothing but her tapestries that she weaves night and day.

Once again Pat Barker has astounded with the starkness of her narrative. She doesn’t hold back the punches in presenting a gritty reality of life for Ancient Greek women and she doesn’t try to distract us from the hardship with flowery prose and lengthy descriptions. All we get are the important details and the emotion, giving deep insight to the characters whose voices have previously been excluded from the big Greek myths: the women.

Briseis is a practical character; whilst she is not unfeeling to her situation, she very rarely allows the emotions overwhelm her and simply tries her best to survive. This makes her a good narrator for the stories of the other women who are perhaps less able to overcome their hardships. She understands their problems and can relate to them, but she has had the time and distance to be able to view it all with a certain level of pragmatism.

My only concern with this book is that, though it did help to set the scene, starting a book called ‘the women of troy’ with a male narrated chapter did seem quite jarring. Although these male narrated chapters did help add depth and understanding to the plot, at times they did detract from and undermine the women’s experiences.

Overall, however, this book was an engaging retelling of a less explored aspect of the Trojan War; both in its mostly female focus and in its setting between the end of the war and the beginning of the journey home where time seems to have stood still for a while.

A brilliant and utterly absorbing follow up to The Silence of the Girls. This is a gripping and immersive read - my feet feel dusty from walking around the Trojan camp with Briseis and the other forgotten women of the epic war. I can't wait to see what Pat Barker writes next, MORE PLEASE!

Thanks to NetGalley for an ARC of this novel.

Pat Barker's Silence of the Girls was one of my favourite books of last year, so I was excited to read this, a direct sequel.

But my excitement somewhat evaporated over the initial sections of the book. Barker's writing is great and she superbly evokes the gritty real-life feel of the aftermath of the siege of Troy but...I felt there was a real lack of thrust or central plotline that compelled me to read on.

I guess the aftermath of great events aren't quite as exciting as the, er, math.

By the halfway point I was struggling to understand what the central plotline was. The book mainly consisted of Briseis going from one house to another and trying to be saintly and nice to everyone. But there was much less of a sense of Briseis herself as the main character this time, she didn't feel fleshed out as she did in the first book.

In itself, I think this is a decent book but unfortunately it pales in comparison to its predecessor.

I really enjoyed the follow up to The Silence of the Girls - perhaps even more so because I was back on familiar territory with a character that I knew and liked in Briseis. An interesting look at a lesser told part of the Trojan war history with interesting choices for the male perspectives that make it seem fresh and new whilst also drawing on classic Greek tragedy, like Antigone

When I was younger I avidly read stories of Ancient Greece and Rome; Pat Barker gives these stories a whole new perspective. Following on from The Silence of the Girls, Troy is destroyed, and King Priam’s body lies unburied on the shore. The men of Troy are dead, the women taken as spoils of war. Briseis continues her story: Given to Achilles as a prize, now carrying his child and married to his friend Alcimus, she and the other women of Troy need to find ways to cope with their new, uncertain futures. Unlikely friendships form, with Briseis gradually rising to a position of respect and leadership among the other women.
Tensions run high amongst the various different armies that made up the invading forces, men with little to do but wait for favourable weather conditions so that they can go home.
Pat Barker does an excellent job of bringing to life these characters from ancient legends. Briseis became very real to me and I look forward to seeing where her story takes us next.

I seem to have unintentionally picked a perfect week to read Pat Barker’s The Women of Troy, with changeable weather and downpours keeping us home mirroring the oppressive winds keeping the Greeks from sailing home in triumph after the sacking of Troy.

Women of Troy is a quieter, more atmospheric and nuanced book than Silence of The Girls. The Greek camp, full of spoils of war - enslaved Trojan women and treasure, is restless, tense. Bored men with nowhere to go and nothing to do but drink the endless free flowing wine and pick quarrels. Among them is Pyrrhus (also known as Neoptolemus), who struggles with the enormous weight of being Achilles’ son and acts out at any perceived slight to his honour but Barker notably builds him into a more complex character.

Briseis returns, now married, she visits and observes the other women, Hecuba, Andromache, Helen, Cassandra, offering help and support as far as she is able to. Most are cooped up in huts, traumatised and unable to grieve their lost husbands, fathers or sons – in a way, their silence and powerlessness are even more palpable in this book.

I thought the book’s setting, this in-between time, worked really well to bring into focus the treatment of women and their individual responses to enslavement. I also liked some of the liberties Barker took with the source materials, such as the secret burial of Priam echoing Antigone and how she used this to explore her characters conflicting emotions and reactions. Overall, I actually preferred The Women of Troy to Silence of The Girls although I might now read the first book again.

My thanks to Penguin UK and Netgalley for the opportunity to read The Women of Troy.

3.5 stars


Enjoyable follow up to the silence of the girls,that continues the story as the Greeks wait to sail home,taking the spoils of war with them.
Good central characters,and such an engaging way of writing.
There are some fairly brutal parts in the story,but it's all treated as every day life...
I hope Barker sees her way to writing more along these lines.

3.5 stars for The Women of Troy. The premise of this book intrigued me. Such a famous tale, and told from an interesting angle, from the forgotten, overlooked women. I confess I have not read the prequel, The Silence of the Girls, so for me this was a standalone book, which did work as we get enough of the history woven in to know where we are in the story, although I did get confused with the mix of names, and who had been married to who and who was related to who, but that was possibly due to a lack of my knowledge about the Trojan War, apart from the most well known names.

The main POV character is Briseis, who was previously given to Achilles as a prize and is now pregnant with Achilles child and married to his general, Alchimus. We also hear from other enslaved women, with a couple of male voices, one of which is Pyrrhus, son of Achilles. The stage is set after the famous sack of Troy in the forced hiatus before the warriors sail home.

It was interesting to be a part of that camp for a while, to navigate the politics with Briseis and see how various characters reacted to their fate. However, I did feel it fell short in truly transporting me there and allowing me to smell the scents and see the sights, and truly walk in the character's shoes. I also wasn't convinced by some of the dialogue. While the POV from Pyrrhus trying to live up to being the son of the legendary Achilles was interesting (one of the most interesting) I did wonder why he was included in what I assumed would be an all-female POV cast.

Overall the novel is set in a time of stasis, which is a strength and a weakness as a feeling of waiting permeates, even through the points of plot. This is a nuanced and subtle story from these women, which is interesting given the overwhelming and massive experiences they have lived through, the grief, the horror, the death and darkness. Perhaps it was too subtle for me as I just felt something was lacking.