“I listened to the whimpering of the wind. At night, the roar that bullied and threatened all day sometimes died away to an inconsolable sobbing- like an abandoned child begging.”

Barker’s sequel to ‘The Silence of the Girls’ is just as good, if not better. The novel follows Briseis and other key characters such as Cassandra and Hecuba as they wait for the winds to drop on the beaches of Troy. The death of Priam and his burial is the main plot point and results in tension and murder in the camp. Barker continues to succeed in giving these female characters a voice and celebrates their strength and courage, particularly the females who are enslaved. I am already eagerly awaiting the next instalment!

Thank you to NetGalley and Penguin for this ARC.

This was a really interesting read. I liked how it showed the different women and groups stuck in the camps around Troy. The writing was beautiful and I loved how it touched on many serious issues that are still affecting those who live in the present day. The action was good and this had several edge of my seat moments. I can't wait for the next book in the series to see where it goes next.

This was an intriguing insight into classical mythology, that doesn't just brush over the brutality associated with mythology. I think it can easily be read as not a lot happening, which can put some people off. Having said this, I enjoyed the story and characters and think if you read it after Silence of the Girls you may enjoy it more. Still recommend for anyone that loves mythology retellings.

The Women of Troy continues from Pat Barker’s Silence of the Girls. Barker completely catapulted me back into the centre of my love for Greek mythology. Yes, it's brutal, yes the ill-treatment and exploitation of women are difficult to read but it is stone-cold accurate and the rigorous research is discernable from the very first page. The book ticks all the boxes with its kaleidoscopic complexity. It’s an audacious and feminist retelling of The Iliad, told from the fallen women of Troy. It’s powerful and influential. So what exactly reeled me in?

A locked room full of human emotion.
Age-old sexism and the fight to have their voices heard.
Greek Mythology.
Angering of the gods.
Strong female characters.

The Women of Troy tells the story of what happens after the horse breaches Troy and is sacked leaving destruction and ruin in their wake. The Trojan war is over and the women lose fathers, brothers, uncles, and sons. They take their spoils, with the main protagonist Breisis being married off to Alcimus after the passing of Achillies. His son Pyrrhus, is a bit of a man baby that often takes his frustrations and the weight of his father’s legacy out on other people, namely the women. The Greek soldiers look forward to setting sail for home, with all the spoils of war. Treasure, riches, the women, and their newfound legacy. There is just one problem – they have angered the gods with the rape carried out in their temples and the desecration of their statues. Gale force winds stop them from moving until they rectify the situation.

There isn’t as much action in this book but the explosive and obsessive narrative had me reading just one more chapter. It's beautiful and captivating and had me instantly searching for more historical fiction set in ancient Greece.

The Women of Troy are the driving force behind the story. Their battle for survival, their principles, and their need to protect and nurture are never far away from the crux of the plot. Bresis, navigating a new marriage and a pregnancy that gives her hope for the future. Hecuba, widowed with the death of Priam, is aging by the day, never getting over the death of her children with only Cassandra surviving. It is predominately a character-driven story, the women of Troy being the real face of war. The blood, the anguish, and the grief playing the starring role. They depict the ravages of war and pillage upon their bodies, their families, and their friendships. It is a viewpoint that paints the Greeks as anti-heroes. It isn’t about the battlefield heroics that are so often read about in history books.

This novel is so patently heartfelt, a necessary read for everyone. Important with imagery that leaves you in the centre of the storm, you feel anguish. Just please go and read this now…it’s that good.

One of the best books of the year. Pat Barker has produced another brilliant book, this time on the aftermath of Troy after the death of Achilles. Her first book on the siege of Troy, The Silence of the Girls, might seem hard to follow but The Women of Troy was every bit as engaging - a rare achievement in a sequel. It is fascinating to explore this story from the perspective of the captive women of Troy and their changed fortunes and she has managed to achieve this without compromising the role of the dominant male characters. Immersive and outstanding.

Intriguing insight into classical mythology telling the stories as brutal as one can imagine.
Having adored Madeleine Miller's novels, I found this relatively hard going but may well venture into reading other books by Pat Barker.
Thanks to Penguin and netgalley for the arc.

This just wasn't for me. I found the characterisation of Helen to be completely inaccurate to the historical sources and I just didn't enjoy the writing style. Again, I don't feel like it really centred the women but was more of a general account of life after the Trojan war.

This was everything you want in a book - a perhaps familiar tale but retold in a way that makes you think about things from a completely different perspective. A wonderful re-telling of a classic Greek myth, it starts out from the viewpoint of the soldiers hiding inside the Trojan horse, following them through their journey into the walled city and the vicious battle that follows, before moving onto the wider population. There's much more focussing on the women who kept Troy going but who were never written about before,
It isn't a book to be rushed, and there were times when the names became confused in my head but it deserves time and concentration. It might be worth re-reading The Silence of the Girls first to get the most out of the story

Ok where do I start with this. I was already intrigued by this book based on the fact that it’s set AFTER the fall of Troy. I loved that concept in itself as I’ve read so many books that focus mainly on the war aspects and battle scenes. This was so different. The stories told about these women were heartbreaking and real and drew a very real picture of what life would have been like for those slave women on the wrong side of the aftermath. I was enthralled from page one and thought the stories were told with just enough raw emotion to make me feel everything I was supposed to, without putting me off. A very well written book!

The Women of Troy was disappointing after the brilliant Silence of the Girls. Narratively, it was much slower and the fat phobia that occurred for no particular reason, other than, I suppose, as a reflection of Pat Barker's feeling about fat people was depressing and unworthy of this writer.

‘As a woman living in this camp, I was navigating a complex and dangerous world’

In The Silence of the Girls, Pat Barker gave women, who up until now were mostly ‘silenced’ with regards to the story of the Trojan War, a voice. She continues Briseis story in her follow up, The Women of Troy and, once more through the female characters who lie in the background of this ancient Greek epic, women continue to have their voice.

‘Only two Trojans in the camp? There were hundreds of Trojans in the camp; but they were women and women are invisible. An advantage, perhaps?’

Troy has fallen, Achilles is dead and the Greeks are awaiting the weather to improve for their return journey home. Interestingly, Pat gives some insight into Pyrrhus, Achilles’s son, who is struggling in the wake of his father’s legacy. Although this instalment may appear subdued compared to the first, there is still nuance regarding the fallout and dangers of playing the waiting game.

‘I followed her gaze and saw, through her eyes, Troy’s black and broken towers, like the fingers of a half-buried hand pointing accusingly at the sky.’

Briseis was an incredibly well written character, demonstrating great strength and compassion to the women around her. A real sisterhood develops as they comfort and support one another. Briseis demonstrates great resilience in the face of such harrowing circumstances and is able to inspire and encourage those around her.

‘The watching women moved closer, gathering round her where she knelt on the filthy sand, joining their cries with hers – until they turned from women into wolves, the same terrible howl coming from a hundred throats. And I howled with them, horrified at the sounds I was making, but unable to stop.’

Once again Pat Barker's writing is exceptional as she delves deep into the motivations of her characters. This duology of books truly was the story that needed to be told - the women who were at the very heart of this iconic tale - whether vanquished or victorious - their story being brave and empowering.

‘Heroic deeds, atrocities – who’s to say where the line is drawn?’



This review is based on a complimentary copy from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own. The quoted material may have changed in the final release.

I absolutely loved Pat Barker’s ‘Silence of the Girls’ after picking a copy up for 50p in a charity shop, therefore I was really happy to get an ARC of this book, the latest in her series.

I am fairly new to Greek mythology and tales, but this book allows for novices to become absorbed into the world of Troy.


Troy has fallen. The Greeks have won their bitter war. They can return home as victors - all they need is a good wind to lift their sails. But the wind has vanished, the seas becalmed by vengeful gods, and so the warriors remain in limbo - camped in the shadow of the city they destroyed, kept company by the women they stole from it.

The women of Troy.

Helen - poor Helen. All that beauty, all that grace - and she was just a mouldy old bone for feral dogs to fight over.

Cassandra, who has learned not to be too attached to her own prophecies. They have only ever been believed when she can get a man to deliver them.

Stubborn Amina, with her gaze still fixed on the ruined towers of Troy, determined to avenge the slaughter of her king.

Hecuba, howling and clawing her cheeks on the silent shore, as if she could make her cries heard in the gloomy halls of Hades. As if she could wake the dead.

And Briseis, carrying her future in her womb: the unborn child of the dead hero Achilles. Once again caught up in the disputes of violent men. Once again faced with the chance to shape history.

This book is addictive, I found myself hooked from the outset, it reads like a film drama.
The ladies all have their own stories to tell, and I found myself just wanting to know more about each one of them.
Lovely infamous Helen - whose face launched a thousand ships..
Briseis- who now faces life as a single mother to her unborn baby.

After reading this, I ordered myself a special edition as I knew I needed to own a physical copy, as beautiful as the story itself.

Pat Barker writes in such a way that we are plucked from our lives, and dropped into Troy, and we watch the lives of the women unfold around us, visually descriptive, you can see the city, smell it.

I highly recommend this book to anyone with an interest in Ancient Greek mythology, Far removed from the over done Gods and Goddesses, it weaves a beautiful story of the forgotten women of the infamous war.

This is the follow up to Pat Barker’s The Silence of the Girls and for me somehow it didn’t quite have the impact of the first. Having said that I thought The Women of Troy was very good indeed and as we expect from Barker, superbly told and rich in detail.
We witness the events of the fall of Troy through the perspective and vivid voice of Briseis, the widow of Achilles and now re-married. The events and experiences witnessed by all the characters, notably the women, are brilliantly portrayed and a real strength of the narrative. There are very moving and emotional scenes together with moments of heightened tension, so realistically written I felt as though I was an actual eye witness, such is the author’s attention to detail and skill.
I really hope there will be a sequel, as I feel there is further development of Pyrrhus’s character and perhaps Cassandra…
I would like to thank the publisher, Penguin General UK and Netgalley for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

such a masterpiece the first part of that series gave me chills all along the second does not disappoint. I could feel myself on that beach waiting for the wind to go away. Such a tense atmosphere and so imaginative and refreshing to see an historical/mythological event through women's eyes.

Continuing the story of Briseis and the other women of Troy after the fall of the city, this is a thoughtful, superbly written and very affecting book, and a worthy sequel to The Silence of the Girls. Barker explores brutal and violent themes from a female point of view and with a powerful but compassionate touch - highly recommended.

A worthy follow-up to The Silence of the Girls! Barker does not disappoint with a meticulous (and never heavy-handed) retelling of the time following the fall of Troy. A brilliant read for fans of The Song of Achilles by Madeleine Miller!

Troy has fallen, and the women now find themselves at the mercy of the Greeks.

I received a free copy from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.
I have not read the first book - The Silence of the Girls - I think The Women of Troy is very good at filling in the details of the world at hand; but I think I would have benefited from knowing the characters as they were in book 1.

The narrative is split between three characters.
Briseis is our main character. She is one of the lucky ones - or as lucky as you can be in a bad situation. She was Achilles favourite prize, and after his death, he decreed that she should marry Alcimus; thus sparing her from being burned on his pyre, or being thrown into the funeral games as a prize.
Alcimus is a pleasant fellow, as Greeks go; and Briseis' position is now that of a freewoman.
As she is visibly pregnant with Achilles' child, everyone starts to treat her with deference.

Pyrrhus is the son of Achilles. He led the final attack on Troy; breaching its walls and killing every man and boy in his path. But his achievements count as nothing, in the shadow of his father's legend.

Calchas is a Trojan priest, under pressure to read the god's intentions, and find out why the victorious Greeks are stuck beside the ruined Troy.

This goes into great detail of camp life, and you get the sense of despair - from both the surviving Trojan women who are being forced to degrade themselves and serve the men who killed their families; and from the greeks, who are stuck on a beach, their loyalties being tested, now that they no longer have a common enemy.

Briseis finds herself watching the women come in, just as she did, when she was captured by the greeks years before. She understands what they are going through, and helps them in what little ways she can.
Even though she is a freewoman, it is not true freedom. She has no power to stop anything, and can only try to make life more endurable for her fellow Trojan women.

The not-so-good.
Nothing happens.
Except for the attack on Troy in the beginning, nothing happens.
You're hit with the sense that the men are trapped on the beach, and the women are trapped in a never-ending nightmare. And it circles on and on.
Instead, we are treated to Briseis reflecting on this moment, or that moment. None of her internal monologue was very interesting. There was no variation in tone, and her intense description of wooden floors had as much feeling as any of her memories.

I also felt that Briseis had a complete lack of connection to the people around her. Despite being in a similar situation, she never emotionally connects to any of the women. She views them with the same cool logic as any inanimate thing.
I honestly wanted to slap her sometimes.

Overall, I thought that it was historically accurate, but lacked life.

Having read Pat Barker’s first book in this reimagined story of the Trojan War I was interested to see how she would follow ‘The Silence of the Girls’ from her unique perspective. Unsurprisingly, the answer is that it is again well crafted and follows logically as the war ends with a Greek victory. Some familiarity with the story of the Trojan War and its heroes and villains is certainly an advantage as these well known figures pepper the narrative from time to time. Fundamentally, though, this is a story from the perspective of Briseis, setting out how events unfolded following the sacking of the city and the enslavement of its people. Ms Barker is skilled at weaving together the everyday inconsequentialities of life with the altogether more significant aspects of this phase of the epic story. Briseis makes an effective vehicle for the unfolding story, although a few chapters offer parallel perspectives from other players.

I must have seen at least a dozen feminist rewritings of the Greek myths in bookshops over the last few years, and at times it’s felt like overkill. I read A Thousand Ships last year and found it narratively interesting, but poorly executed. The Women of Troy reminded me why these stories continue to be told and retold, and how they have captured human imagination for millennia. ⁣
⁣
The book takes place at the end of the Trojan War; the Greeks have won yet are grounded on the Trojan beach, unable to go home after a ten year battle. They are frustrated and suspicious, wary of what may have angered the gods. The King of Troy, along with all the men of Troy, is dead and his body sits rotting outside the camp. ⁣
⁣
The story focuses on Briseis, now pregnant with Achilles’s child and therefore one of the few Trojan woman who is free amidst slaves; Cassandra, married off to the Greek King of Kings Agamemnon, her prophecies of their murder ignored; Calchas, the seer embroiled in politics with Hecuba, the former Queen of Troy; and Pyrrhus, the son of Achilles whose brutality masks his struggle to live up to the greatest warrior ever known. ⁣
⁣
I enjoyed this thoroughly - the characters are complex and nuanced, the use of casual modern British vernacular oddly works (Cassandra refers to Helen’s ‘great, big, wobbly tits’, Greek soldiers complain that ‘me back hurts’), and it captures so much of what makes these stories truly great. At the heart of the book is Briseis’s account of Priam coming in the darkness of night to plead with Achilles for the body of the Prince of Troy, Hector, and lying supplicant at the hands of the man who killed his son. Out of it comes mutual respect and friendship, and it is scenes of such profound humanity that remind me why these stories have endured.

The Women of Troy is a direct continuation of Pat Barker's previous novel, The Silence of the Girls, where we follow Briseis and the other women of Troy following the city's destruction and the growing unrest amongst the Greeks.

Pat Barker does her best with very little plot here. The book is set during a rather sedate period in Greek history, a time when the winds prevent the Greeks from leaving the fallen city of Troy and everyone just starts bickering amongst themselves. Given that there are numerous factions of bored men stuck on a small plot of land, with no common enemy to fight against, it's no small wonder they start arguing with each other. Especially over the subject of burying Priam. Honestly, at times it felt like Priam was doing the hokey-cokey of burial - in, out, in, out, (don't) shake it all about. In the background, we have Briseis and the other women watching and chatting together, and there are a few nice intimate moments between the women who find themselves at the mercy of these men, but other than that there's not a whole lot going on. It's definitely more a character study, an examination on women from a very specific period of time, rather than a plot driven story.

Throughout the book, we mainly have Briseis' point of view, however it does occasionally give other perspectives. However, these chapters were often difficult to distinguish as the chapters are not titled, and the voices are not distinct enough to immediately tell that they are from another point of view. A few time I found myself confused by the sudden interruption of Briseis' story to hear from Pyrrhus - although he is a very interesting character, a boy frequently cast in the shadow of his father.

At times Briseis is a difficult character to warm too. She's often quite harsh in her opinions of the other women around her, dishing out mean or derogatory comments even though she has been in their position herself. She has learnt to adapt to her surroundings better than most, always listening and observing, sometimes able to manipulate what she knows to her advantage, and although is admire this resourcefulness in her, it also doesn't really endear to me either.

A decent story that takes a quieter moment in time and expands it to include the women into the heart of the take. With such an abrupt ending, I'm hoping this means Pat Barker will continue to tell Briseis' story beyond the shores of Troy.