I have loved Pat Barker’s books ever since reading Union Street which describes austerity in the North East through the eyes of eight women. The author is able to get into the heads of the women she writes about taking readers with her on her characters’ journeys, in this case, the lives of the Trojan women, We have a retelling of the Iliad through the eyes of the women who are slaves after the capture of Troy in the well known story of The Trojan Horse. It is interesting how differently they view Helen in comparison with how Homer depicts her. So much of this story is sadly still true today in some parts of the world. The book is very well written and I highly recommend it. Thank you Netgalley for giving me the chance to read it in advance of publication.

War’s end

Pat Barker’s second Trojan War novel begins inside the Wooden Horse as the Greeks wait to see if Odysseus’ trick will work and The Trojans will transport the Horse within their walls. This is an effective scene with the stink of the soldiers’ sweat, their fear that the plan is just too preposterous, their attempts to appear brave and unconcerned. The scene centres on the youthful son of Achilles, the lately arrived Pyrrhus, who has much to prove to the other warriors and to himself. The fall of Troy and Pyrrhus’ brutal murder of King Priam are rendered with apocalyptic violence, Pyrrhus realising he has fallen lamentably short of his father’s ability, insulted by the dying Priam in front of the watching women of Troy. Pyrrhus orders the body of the dead king to be unburied.

This impiety of the victorious Greeks leads to punishment from the gods, the fleet unable to depart from the Trojan coast, tormented by an endless wind whose moans echoes the spirits of the dead Trojans. In this desert-like landscape wander the Trojan women, now slaves of their Greek conquerors and the soldiers, anxious to depart for home. Among the women is Briseis, once the ‘prize’ of Achilles, now married to his lieutenant, and carrying Achilles’ child. As a free Trojan, respected for her marriage, she visits the captive women offering them what help she can.

Barker’s novel is not what I imagined it might be: I had thought it a sort of retelling of Euripides’ play, The Trojan Women. Yes, the characters from that play all appear: Queen Hekabe, Priam’s widow, now the slave of Odysseus, but formidable still; Spartan Helen, reconciled to her husband Menelaus, hated by all; Cassandra, wed to Agamemnon, grimly satisfied with the future she alone foresees; Andromache, Hector’s widow, bereft of her child, now concubine of the brutal Pyrrhus. But the part played by these women is minor. The author places the unburied corpse of Priam at the centre, ropes in the plot of another ancient work, the Antigone of Sophocles, and makes Greek departure from the land of Troy contingent on the observation of moral decencies demanded of victors.

For me what made this a marvellous novel was the brilliant portrayal of Pyrrhus. He is Achilles’ son, so he is strong and powerful. But he is Achilles’ son, so he is insecure and feels inadequate in comparison to his father. He is a violent killer, but he can be surprisingly thoughtful and sensitive. His relationship with Briseis who carries Achilles’ unborn child is interesting and, if there is another novel to succeed this one, it will be fascinating to see how that relationship develops.

The novel is demonstrably of the same world as its predecessor, but its atmosphere of doom, of the dissatisfaction of victory, of the maltreatment of the conquered, of the perceived inadequacies of the men, especially Pyrrhus, of the longsuffering patience of the women, their desire for revenge, but also for peace, all these integrate into an immensely moving whole. Some may not like it as much as the first. But the first had Achilles. This one has his son. And the story is not over. There may be more to come.

A great sequel to Pat Barker’s ‘The Silence Of The Girls’. A wonderful look at the slightly-less famous parts of the Greek saga, which is touching and moving and funny in equal measure. A must read.

Loved this book. Don't know where the previous one finished but this opens with the Greek soldiers sitting inside the Trojan horse waiting to be pulled through the gates of Troy. No different to men sat inside a tank waiting for the battle: nervous, sweating and needing the loo! I know this story very well but this book really spends its time within the Greek camps in the aftermath of the war. Everyone is going stir crazy unable to set sail for home due to the wind. Only Cassandra really knows what awaits on her return with Agamemnon, but of course she is not believed. This focuses on the activity of the captured women, royal and otherwise and their place within the camps of the various kings. Thanks to Netgalley.

I’ve never read anything by Pat Barker but I’ve heard so much praise for The Silence of the Girls so I was excited to try this. I know it’s supposed to be a sequel but I do think it works well as a stand alone book as well, although you do need some general knowledge of the Trojan war since it picks up the story after the fall of Troy.
I thought it was very well written and the descriptions were so vivid. At times I felt I was transported there myself with Briseis and the other women. I did find the pacing a bit slow and it took me a long time to become fully engrossed in the story.
Thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for a copy of the ARC!

In this retelling of Greek mythology, we’re dropped straight into the action with Pyrrhus, Achilles’ son, sitting inside the Trojan horse with the other Greek soldiers, about to enter Troy and bring about the end of the war. The masculine world of action is then contrasted with the women in the camp, as we return to Briseis point of view, picking up where The Silence of the Girls left off. Briseis is pregnant with Achilles’ child and now married to Alcimus – no longer a slave but still powerless. The plight of the women and slaves in the Greek camp, the women who have accepted their fate and the ones quietly resisting, is subtle and fascinating.
Atmospheric and full of detail, Barker’s writing really brings the ancient world and the squalor of the army camps to life.

I enjoyed reading this book. I found it interesting on a subject which I knew very little about and actually never really thought about
Yes, of course, we all know about the wooden horse of Troy and we all know about Helen of Troy, but what happened afterwards to the inhabitants of Troy, both male and female, young and old, was enlightening
The way they were treated by the Greeks was despicable and the way they dealt with it was admirable

I thoroughly enjoyed The Silence of the Girls and loved this as well. Pat Barker is so good at portraying a world we can only imagine in such a way that it becomes completely real. This is the story of those who are forgotten in these epics - the women.

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.