Masterful and enduringly resonant, ambitious and intimate, The Women of Troy continues Pat Barker's extraordinary retelling of one of our greatest classical myths, following on from the critically acclaimed The Silence of the Girls. Once again faced with the chance to shape history.

Once again caught up in the disputes of violent men. And Briseis, carrying her future in her womb: the unborn child of the dead hero Achilles. Hecuba, howling and clawing her cheeks on the silent shore, as if she could make her cries heard in the gloomy halls of Hades. Stubborn Amina, with her gaze still fixed on the ruined towers of Troy, determined to avenge the slaughter of her king. They have only ever been believed when she can get a man to deliver them. All that beauty, all that grace - and she was just a mouldy old bone for feral dogs to fight over.Ĭassandra, who has learned not to be too attached to her own prophecies. 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. They can return home as victors - all they need is a good wind to lift their sails. Pat Barker returns to Homer in this gory but unexpectedly uplifting novel' Sunday TimesTroy has fallen. When the women are handed out to the leaders of the Greek raiders, Briseis, as beautiful and of royal blood, is given to Achilles. Following her bestselling, critically acclaimed The Silence of the Girls, Pat Barker continues her extraordinary retelling of one of our greatest myths. The plot begins when Greeks led by Achilles sack Lyrnessus, describing the looting and burning of the city, the massacre of its men and the abduction of its women including Briseis, the childless wife of king Mynes.

The women of troy by pat barker