An eye opening account of the life of women and girls treated as the spoils of war in this retelling of the Iliad from a female perspective. Queen Briseis is the storyteller, and her experience as a concubine to the ruthless, and troubled Achilles is beautifully written with vivid descriptions. A great read. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher, Penguin for an ARC

I love The Iliad. I've read multiple takes on it, but rarely one from the perspective of the women whose lives were so intertwined with Achilles'.

A phenomenal character study, and one that lets no one down.

I fully adored this book and is my favourite Pat Barker novel that I've read so far. A wonderful look at the women in the Greek myths, this easy to read, colloquial novel is utterly unputdownable.

We all know about Helen of Troy – but what of the other women taken in the conquest? This retelling of the Trojan war happens ‘off-stage’ where women fear destitution even more than forced marriages to the men who killed their husbands. Although it centres on the damage that war does to women, ironically, where it really shone for me was the study of the enigmatic character of Achilles, who is portrayed as a heartless warrior who cries at night for his salty sea mother. Wonderful literary writing, great perspective – highly recommended.

Fabulous I now want to read more pat barker and more myth retellings. A great way to tell the story from a female perspective and a pacy story

A good, enjoyable read. I did enjoy this.
Thank you to both NetGalley and Penguin Books for giving me the opportunity to read this book in exchange for my honest unbiased review

The Silence of the Girls is a phenomenal book. A fascinating and unique take on the myth of Achilles and the Trojan War told by the women that time forgot, the witnesses whose opinions mattered less than the dogs surrounding the camps of war. Pat Barker infuses a richness of detail to her characters and I couldn't put this book down. Highly recommended.

Trojan Briseis, Achilles’ bed-slave, is a lone figure at the end of ‘The Silence of the Girls’. The reader has accompanied her through the savage slaughter of her family, her degradation as a sex slave, her continual fear of death and her new unchosen life as the wife of a Greek warrior. As she looks back on Achilles’ story to which she has been tightly bound throughout her time in the Greek camp, she pronounces, ‘Now, my own story can begin.’
And this idea is at the centre of this novel. As the title suggests, women are not invited to comment, propose, debate or decide. To do so in this highly patriarchal society may be to risk one’s life. Briseis is a pragmatist up to a point but, by building some kind of understanding with Patroclus, Achilles’ closest companion, she is able to occasionally share her feelings. Anyone reading this novel as a feminist re-telling of Troy should understand that it is in not allowing the women to speak that Pat Barker reminds us just how deeply and for how long chauvinism has been embedded in the Western world.
Barker is a wonderful teller of stories and her version of the Trojan war is no exception. We can smell the rotting bodies, hear the groans in the medical tents, taste the salt air and hear the sea water lapping. The heat of the fires, the rattle of the chariots and the shuttle of the looms worked by captive women in stifling huts stay in the reader’s mind whilst the contrast of the men’s lavish feasts, their hot scented baths and delicious wine reminds us that it is indeed a man’s world! These men are brutal, all-powerful, trained killers. Just as she does in her war stories of the twentieth century, Barker highlights how ongoing war affects soldiers and all who live among them. Achilles may be a god-like warrior but his might on the battlefield comes at a price. Briseis sees him broken with grief and hollowed out by murder, an unfeeling figurehead of Greek domination, and he knows she sees him. Nevertheless, their relationship is never sentimentalised. For much of the time he despises her and she loathes him.
A number of novels focusing on stories of the Ancient World have been published recently. Of those that I have read, ‘The Silence of the Girls’ conjures up the Trojan War characters and events by far the most persuasively. If one were to read this merely as a new version of the original one would not be disappointed. However, Barker’s retelling does more. It prompts us to confront the subjugation of women. Brought up in a society where ‘silence becomes a woman’, Briseis can only speak freely with a few trusted women and only eventually has a place in society when she becomes a wife. ‘The Silence of the Girls’ reminds us how fortunate we are to be able to use our voices, and implies that we should use them to tell our own important stories.
My thanks to NetGalley and Hamish Hamilton for a copy of this novel in exchange for a fair review.

I enjoyed the story of this book and the characters it depicted, some of the names were very familiar, Achilles, Agamemnon, Helen of Troy... so it feels very familiar but the perspective of this story is what makes it so engaging. The story of Briseis, and through her eyes, the other women of the camp, brings more reality to the stories of these famed hero's, as people you can relate to - with character flaws and acts of humanity that make them seem more human than god-like.

Thank you for allowing me to review this book.

A retelling of the Trojan War from the point of view of Briseis, an aristocratic young woman taken as a prize by Achilles when her city was sacked. She and the other women are taken to the Greek encampment on the battlefields at Troy where they are given to men as reward for their heroism in battle. Briseis is considered lucky for being awarded to Achilles, she could have become one of the common women made available to all of Agamemnon's soldiers. But although she is spared that horror she faces her own day-to-day nightmares and indignities, being the slave of the man who killed her family, required to share his bed. It is a very well written book and the new viewpoint turns the epic tales of male heroism on their heads, pointing out the vile realities and painting a very different portrait of Achilles. This is not a romanticised telling of Troy, it is brutal and unabashed but necessarily so. Pat Barker again shows her genius at capturing the horrors of war.

I was sent a free digital copy of this book by Netgalley.

The story of Achilles and the part he played in the Sack of Troy is legendary (narf), and the fates of Chryseis and Briseis play overlooked but essential roles in his story. <i>The Silence of the Girls</i> places Briseis front and centre, showing us who Achilles' slave-girl was before she became thus. Through her (non-Greek) eyes, we see the monstrous Achilles and the army that surrounds him, and experience her life as a slave.

I struggled with this review. I am a big fan of Greek mythology and there are some really fantastic retellings out there (Madeleine Miller, I'm looking at you). <i>The Silence of the Girls</i> does a good job, overall, but for me falls down a tad too much. We get a great insight into Briseis' life as a slave, but for a book that is all about her narrative, her voice is curiously silent at key parts of the book. As much as I enjoyed the brief sojourns into Patroclus and Achilles' POVs, I don't think it was necessary for this book and there could have been a way to continue seeing through Briseis' eyes. There is also a great focus in the closing chapters on the fact that this was Achilles' story, and that Briseis' story resumes once the war is over, but this led me to wonder why we didn't get to read about her life after the war.

This felt like an opportunity missed for the sake of highlighting rape and battery in a famous (albeit to be fair, sanitised) story.

The story of Achilles – or more to the point, the story of Briseis, his trophy woman. The narrative switches between the point of view of the two; from the subjugation of Briseis from her previous regal position to that of slave and concubine, to Achilles’ as triumphant and arrogant young warrior.

A page-turner, an easily accessible entrance into this mythical world. A fascinating and compelling read from Pat Barker, I could not put this down. This kind of subject matter could be viewed as heavy and difficult – this read is anything but, try it!

The Silence of the Girls is a story about the Trojan War, mostly narrated by Briseis who is awarded as a prize to Achilles after he conquers her home of Lyrnessus. This is a pretty gruesome, gloomy tale for the most part. Men and boys are slaughtered, the women and girls shipped away to become slaves and concubines for the Greek army. But there is the odd brighter scene where the women support one another in their struggles that are quite touching and occasionally even a little amusing. Very well and cleverly written, this is a real winner for fans of Greek mythology.

I loved this book! An absolute dream, reminiscent of Madeline Miller's The Song of Achilles. A beautifully written graphic depiction of the Trojan War from the perspective of women. Definitely worth reading!

The Silence of the Girls is a version of Homer's Iliad but - here's the twist - it's mainly told from the point of view of one of the women, Briseis, shining a light on the awful way women were treated in war: 'They're the warriors, with their helmets and armour, their swords and spears, and they don't seem to see our battles - or they prefer not to.'

Briseis' husband was Mynes, king of Leleges, but when her city was destroyed by the Greeks, the soldiers took her (and all the women) as a slave and she was awarded as a prize to legendary Greek fighter, Achilles. She went from being a queen to a sex slave that was simply something to be bargained with. SomeTHING, not someONE. Women really were just objects to be used. So, when I read that this book was a tale of the Trojan war as told by women, giving voices to women that had none and letting them tell their side of the story, it not only felt very topical for right now, but as a concept had the potential to be really interesting. However, I couldn't help but feel that this idea wasn't executed in any spectacular way. Ultimately, women during the Trojan war were seen as nothing but slaves and treated terribly. Hearing this from a female character doesn't change anything about that. Briseis sometimes tries to justify why women fall in love with their captors, or are so complacent to the men that killed their families to give a human angle to the terrible situation: 'I was a slave, and a slave will do anything, anything at all, to stop being a thing and become a person again.' 

So really what I'm reading is another version of the Iliad, a story I already know. Especially as despite being pitched as 'the Trojan War from the point of view of the women', Achilles has quite a few chapters from his point of view. To be honest, I did find myself skimming the Achilles chapters, they were not telling me anything different about his story, neither were they adding to his character.

It is well written - the terrible conditions of life in a war camp are graphically brought to life and I liked how Pat Barker attributes a lot of contemporary language to the characters - it gave a fresher feel to the retelling. Overall though, this has been the first book in a while that came with glowing reviews but sadly just didn't live up to the hype for me.

Having read the Song of Achilles, this is a startlingly different perspective on the conclusion of the Troy saga. A heartbreaking tale, it draws you in by highlighting an only too often overlooked aspect of warfare - the treatment of the innocent population of children and women at the hands of the victors. It makes for a much more humane story than that depicted by Homer, while the characters lose nothing of their unique traits ascribed to them by the great bard. The wily Odysseus, tormented Achilles, and the gentle Patroclus are all as you know and love them. A fabulous read. Come and visit.

I received an ARC of this novel in exchange for an honest review. Thank you to NetGalley, Penguin Books, and the author Pat Barker.
I’ve always been a fan of Greek Mythology, and so found this new retelling from the women’s perspective incredibly interesting and involving.
It is a compellingly written book, with Briseis as a sympathetic narrator, and I would highly recommend it for anyone interested in this genre.
It is so focused on the experiences of the women, that many key elements of the war aren’t even touched upon, including the Trojan Horse. This doesn’t detract from the novel but instead provides new viewpoints and appreciations of the brutality of the slaves’ experiences as spoils of a war and a society controlled entirely by men.
Really enjoyed this book!

I loved this book. The story of Achilles from a completely different point of view,, Breisis who, once a queen in Troy, is now a slave given to Achilles as trophy of war. Here. Achilles is shown to be a man rather than half gd with all the weaknesses of humankind; love, jealousy, fear, anger. There is room for a little sentiment but this is no romance novel there is plenty of blood and guts too. Perfect for men and women who love Greek mythology Barker really brings all the characters to life.

Am normally a fan of retellings, but for me, this one fell short of the mark. The story was often repetitive and halfway through it really started to drag. Readers don't need to be continually reminded of the unsanitary and unhygienic living conditions of an Ancient Greek warcamp. The inclusion of Achilles as a POV character in the second half was odd given the premise of the book is a female retelling of the Trojan War. Plus the author's use of modern English slang and colloquialisms in the conversations was awful. Overall there isn't anything that stands out to make it original or memorable. It is a mediocre inclusion in a subject area that has had quite a few fantastic modern contributions.

I think the majority of people will have a certain image of Achilles in their heads thanks to the portrayal of his persona as a great warrior and handsome hero in major blockbuster movies. According to Greek mythology, Achilles was the son of the mortal Peleus, king of the Myrmidons, and the immortal Nereid Thetis. She is a sea nymph, a goddess of water and also purported to be one of fifty Nereids, the daughters of the ancient sea god Nereus.

The latter is especially important during this story, because Achilles’ obsession with his mother has a direct influence on the way he interacts with women, in this case Briseis. The initial attraction is caused by memories evoked by the smell of the sea on Briseis, which reminds him of the mother who abandoned him. He returns to the sea over and over again to connect with the feeling of love and protection he misses so much. Achilles becomes the young boy who yearns for the arms of his mother. Of course in relation to Briseis and memories of his mother we are talking Oedipal complex.

The Greeks are fighting to get Helen back, the infamous Helen of Troy. This story is focused on the lives of the women in the camp of the Greeks during this conflict. Women and girls who are bounty from other conflicts and sieges. Any male above a certain age is considered a future threat and therefore annihilated.

It doesn’t matter which status the women had before, they are all in the same boat when they are taken prisoner. Saying that, there is still a hierarchy with the worst position being the women no man of importance has any interest in. They are given to the soldiers as camp whores. The others are just whores by a different name. Although sometimes a woman might rise to the position of wife, it tends to be a rarity. The reality is that these women are treated like voiceless scum.

Barker combines mythology, history and women’s fiction, the result is a beautiful bold and heart-wrenching piece of literature. It is the gift that keeps on giving. It speaks of the unheard voices and the imposed silence girls have always had to live with. Even the alleged hero, winner of hearts and ruler of warriors is but a man at the end of the day. A man who treats women with disdain.