I was lucky enough to hear Pat Barker talking about this book at the Edinburgh Book Festival and so was very pleased to receive an ARC from Net Galley in exchange for an honest review.
Hearing her speak about the thinking behind the novel clarified things that might have puzzled me otherwise.Although the book is set in Ancient Greece,the language is very modern,which might irritate some readers.However for me,it highlighted the fact that wars were equally devastating then as they are now,and having the characters speaking as we do now gave it a sense of immediacy that would have been lacking if they spoke in archaic language.
The treatment of the Trojan women reminded me of stories I have heard about the way women were treated in more recent wars and was just as shocking. The horror of war is not glossed over and the brutality meted out by both sides is presented in detail.
There are episodes which are moving and painful in equal measure ,such as when the old Trojan king Priam comes to beg Achilles to give him the body of his son Hector.
I think this is a very interesting,well written account of war,told mainly from the point of view of the women caught up in it.It recognised the futility of war and its effects on both the men fighting it and the innocent women and children whose lives are changed forever by it.

As a history buff how could I not enjoy The Silence of the Girls.. Greece and Troy lived again and the women, as women always do in times of war suffered but survived. Yet this was spoiled at times by too modern language the use of “mate” and other modern idioms spoilt it for me..

A comparison to women suffering was made in A Thousand Suns by Khaled Hosseini which was far more powerful. Worth a read..

In The Silence of the Girls Barker returns to the wartime setting she worked with so well in the Regeneration trilogy but with a few key differences: this time she is focussing on the events of the Trojan War and she writes largely from the point of view of the women whose lives are so brutally changed by the conflict. Life for women in this period is a bit of a mixed bag. The women of the upper classes have all the material benefits – palaces, jewels, beautiful clothes, the best food and wine – but they don’t have the freedoms we take for granted. They can’t walk around freely, they have to be heavily veiled, and they are not free. Even the women who are not slaves are the property of their fathers or husbands – the only women who are not property are the prostitutes and they are, effectively, treated as common property. Of course the main character, Briseis, Queen of a city near Troy, doesn’t realise that her life is as good as it will get. She is very young and feels dominated by her mother in law but this is nothing compared to her life once the Greeks have defeated her city. The men and boys are killed – even pregnant women are slain in case the child they carry is male – and the women are now become the property of the Greeks. Briseis is awarded to Achilles as a trophy – property once again, but now she has no power or status and, in fact, becomes a pawn in the struggles between Achilles and the Greek king Agamemnon.

The history here is told well – I don’t know the Iliad that well but I’m pretty certain Barker sticks to the events within it – but the real meat of the book is Briseis and the way she survives what life (and the Trojan War) has thrown at her. Her inner strength as she submits, in body at least, to the change from Queen to bed-slave; her determination to stay alive, even as some of the women who share her fate chose suicide; her certainty that, even though she must share the bed of a Greek hero, and may even grow to love or respect them, she is still a Trojan woman. And, thanks to Pat Barker, the voices of those Trojan women are silent no longer.

Not for me - beautifully written as you might expect from Pat Barker but strangely I just could not get interested in the storyline. The descriptive prose is a delight to read and if you can get in I am certain that you will love it

This book gives a fascinating angle on the great classical story of the fall of Troy, celebrated in the wonderfully successful 'Song of Achilles' by Madeleine Miller. This time we see war through the eyes of the normally silent witnesses, the women who must suffer the aftermath of being on the losing side of the glorious battles, in particular, Briseis, who views Achilles and his valiant counterparts in an entirely different light. The book is beautifully written in a style that is accessible to the modern reader, but which also conveys some of the classical importance of the original stories. It manages to place the reader firmly inside the mind of the defeated, almost invisible female protagonist, whilst recognising and understanding the feelings and motivations of the victorious men who hold her in their power. I was thoroughly gripped by the frank, uncompromising voice of Briseis who tells her own story with a range of empathy and emotion, determined never to be silenced or ignored through her resilience and inner strength. Wonderful!

This is a compelling novelised version of the fall of Troy and the events leading to Achilles' death, told from the viewpoint of a Trojan woman, Breseis, whom Achilles took to be his slave and concubine. It shows how helpless women can be when seen as spoils of war, to be taken at will and bargained over. All the famous names you have heard of are here, their lives and deaths woven into what is in essence a short and brutal tale.

The Regeneration trilogy has to go down as an all time favourite and so I was a little apprehensive about this one.
Whilst I don’t think it can compare, I thoroughly enjoyed this retelling of the Iliad from the perspective of Briseis, Queen of Lyrnessus, who is taken by the Greeks and given to Achilles as his concubine.
Whilst this is mythology it paints a very real picture of the plight of women throughout the ages when they are on the losing side of a war. In some instances death would be preferable.
Having read some of the other reviews I can’t agree that the book just ends up being the story of Achilles. There are a few sections from his POV but the book is predominantly Briseis’ story.
As always, Barker’s writing is beautiful and the characters and plot were brought to life for me.
My thanks to Netgalley for this copy.

There have been many reviews about the narrative of the book, rather than repeat that I thought I'd write about how it feels to read the novel.

I had recently read 'The Song of Achilles' and this novel covers much of the same story.

The difference is way the story is written. Miller's tale is written in pastels and rather Renoir like. Barker's would have been written by Picasso. It's a tirade about the innocent victims of war. The people who become chattels. The horror and the corruption of humanity by repeated violence and the absence of feeling and compassion.

An incredible novel. Visceral, compelling and totally relevant in a world where women and sex are seen as a form of domination or a prize for bad behaviour.

Superb writing, occasionally anachronistic in terms of a 21st century gaze rather that that of a world where god's live and immortality comes from the memories and stories people have of you.

I'd highly recommend it, it's not a bad thing to be disturbed by a novel and forced to consider what happens in a war to women, children and the old.

I'm not familiar with the classics and haven't read The Iliad, although I know the story. Pat Barker's reworking of the tale in The Silence of the Girls Is fresh, vibrant and relevant and I was gripped from the first page.

This book is truly astonishing; brutal, passionate, lyrical and haunting. The perspective is unique and compelling, giving what feels like real insight into the plight and role of women. Abused and ignored, violated and discarded, their story resonates today. The title belies the fact that this book gives women a voice. It's an incredible story with pace and life and this is what truly great writing is all about. Just brilliant from start to finish.

My thanks to the publisher for a review copy via Netgalley.

Fantastic - I've loved everything I've ever read by Pat Barker, and this is no exception. It was a change in time from previous works I've read, but no less compelling - a little-considered viewpoint of the women, and excellent.

I loved this book. From the first sentence I was gripped by the story and the characters. Pat Baker manages to vividly describe the brutal reality of life for women when men, honour, and power are the only important things in society and yet the characters, both the women and the men, are never reduced to two dimensional caricatures. They are kind, thoughtless, selfish, generous, cruel, and always painfully real.

A masterpiece that gives voice to the women who are otherwise often seen as props in the glorious battles of the Ancient Greek heroes. Difficult but compulsive reading full of emotion and candor.

You know how, sometimes, a book gets off to a flying start? Well, The Silence of the Girls got off to such a flying start that I had difficulty keeping up but I did !! You can probably tell by this point that I thoroughly enjoyed the "ride". In my opinion, a novel approach/view to a "historical novel", splendidly done.

"Men don't hear women's silences,' says Pat Barker in an interview about this astonishing book. And how true that is. We are used to men being at the forefront of things and women's concerns as being dismissed as only of interest to women. In The Silence of the Girls we at last hear from one of the women featured in Homer's Iliad. Briseis, a king's daughter, is captured after the downfall of Lymessus and is given to Achilles as a prize. Just think about that for a second. A woman. Given as a prize.

At the beginning of the novel, her voice sings out, capturing the reader immediately. "‘Great Achilles, 'Achilles, shining Achilles, godlike Achilles . . . How the epithets pile up. We never called him any of those things; we called him 'the butcher'." Briseis is a wonderful character, her wit and humour are always there even in the darkest times and there are dark times a plenty. Her story is compelling and she is a witness not only to the brutalities of the Trojan war but also to the evils of contemporary war. For, let's face it, this may be about a woman who lived over two thousand years ago but her experiences are those of many women today. Barker uses anachronisms to excellent effect. By making the soldiers sing lewd songs, she reminds us that as these songs still exist, so do the attitudes to women that they portray.

The great mystery is - and a question we should all be asking - why is this novel not on the Booker long list. This is brilliant fiction, relevant to our lives today, and an amazing reimagining of one of the canonic works of European literature.


Read more at https://www.penguin.co.uk/articles/in-conversation/interviews/2018/aug/pat-barker-the-silence-of-the-girls/#u4kFBz6imIgUXqW2.99

A longish time ago I studied the Iliad at school. In translation. It was a girls school and we all took sides: #teamhector or #teamachilles. I was firmly Team Achilles. His youthful arrogant glory, burnished handsomeness, semi divineness, his love for Patroclus, his wounded pride. His tragic fate. Madeleine Miller's superlative A Song of Achilles reinforced this view of the hero felled by destiny, as all good Greek heroes eventually are.
But of course every story has more than two sides and forgotten, even in a girls school, were the silent voices of the women. We all united in our hatred of Agamemnon and his careless sacrifice of his daughter, felt for poor Cassandra unheeded as she warned against her doom, wept for Andromache enslaved as her son lay broken on the ground below, detested Odysseus as he slept his way around the Aegean sea while his wife spun at home. But the women were footnotes in the men's heroic journeys. In The Silence of the Girls Barker brings them out of the shadows, giving Briseis, the unwilling and unwitting cause of Achilles withdrawal and then death, centre stage and a grief-filled, raw, angry voice.
It would be trite to call this the Iliad for the Me-too generation, but it is the story of every woman whose life is devastated by war, a testament for all those forgotten voices. And in a world where rape is still a weapon, where brutalised 'sex slaves' - or rape victims as they really are - are ostracised by their communities, in a world where women's bodies still belong to the victors, their voices need to be heard, on the news, on the TV and here in fiction.
This is a wonderful book; compelling and lyrical, raw and angry, devastating and unflinching. It should be read as a standalone and as a companion piece to its source material. The girls silence has been broken. Hear them roar.

I wasn’t sure if I would enjoy this retelling of the Iliad as much as Barker’s other books, familiar characters such as Achilles and Odysseus fighting a war I knew from childhood tales of the Trojan horse sounded slightly dull, but within a couple of pages I was spellbound. The “girls” whose silence the title refers to are mainly women, particularly women who’d been married to powerful men who happened to be fighting on the “wrong” side. When your side loses a battle like this then all of the men from the elderly to babies in the womb must die to make sure they can’t rebel against their captors. The women are chattels to be used and abused by their captors as they see fit. First choice goes to Achilles the best fighter and charismatic leader who chooses Briseis. Briseis knows her place and what’s expected of her but inside her head she has a very powerful voice and this voice rings true throughout the novel, showing the terrible fates that rich and poor alike must suffer because Paris “stole” Helen. It might be set in the past but it ias as valid today as it was then, a marvellous read.

THE SILENCE OF THE GIRLS is an absolute masterpiece, leaving me reeling from the very first paragraph. Pat Barker's exquisite, excruciating tale of Briseis and her enslavement by Achilles, painting a tale of man scarred by the absence of his mother, and blinded by his own pride. Though Achilles is by no means the centre of the tale - Briseis' determination not to sink under the Greeks' held my attention completely, filling me with strength when I couldn't bear what she underwent. The prose is conversational, giving a confessional atmosphere to the story, knife sharp and brutal in places, lyrical and moving in others. I adore this book and I'm longing to read it again, already.

What a book... what a book, what a book, what A BOOK.

Never have I read something grounded in the Ancient world that brings modern concerns to the forefront like 'The Silence of the Girls'. I was incredibly keen to read this, and was not disappointed at all. Thank you so, so much Penguin for this opportunity.

Although the writing reads like simple modern fiction, without the epic metaphors of Homer and Madeline Miller, the accessible language still manages to capture the atmosphere of what we would imagine surrounds the Trojan war. Barker is able to somehow encapsulate the traumas of sexual assault, and the concerns of life, of death, of hatred, and of fate that continue to haunt us today.

With her excellent plot, studious context, and fantastic pacing, she reminds us that, in reading about the Ancient world, humans find we have not really changed much at all.

Having read all of Pat Barker’s Regeneration trilogy and enjoyed the books, I was intrigued to find out how she would approach the retelling of The Iliad from Briseis’ point of view. I was not disappointed. As I’ve come to expect from Barker’s work, the style was compelling and taut, driving the narrative forward at a cracking pace while still capturing the inner world of her main character. Her examination of war as seen from the perspective of the helpless women used and abused as slaves was equally fascinating and appalling and gave the traditional spin on this narrative a different feel. While other retellings focus on the alleged heroic nature of battle, in this novel we see the grim reality of those forced to live with the consequences. War comes out as being futile, a vainglorious activity that constantly contradicts itself. I didn’t finish the book feeling uplifted: it is hard to do so when we see how even today the same kind of barbarities are still being committed around the world. I did however finish it with a different view and approach to so-called classic or epic tales and remain as ever a fan of Pat Barker’s work.

I'm a little torn on this one - on one hand it felt like a rehash of all the Trojan tales that I know son well. On the other it was well done, impassioned and brought to life the more 'minor' characters.

Everyone knows the stories of Achilles and Patroclus, but Briseis, Queen of Lyrnessus and now slave to the Greeks,is not so well known. In many ways what made this book particularly good was Barker's emphasis on telling the stories of the Trojan women who were enslaved to the Greeks (as well as the details of the Greek encampment and of warfare) whilst ultimately emphasising that their own stories gave been lost to those of the male heroes. I particularly liked the final (ambiguous) lines.

This is an old story told well.