I had seen a review of this book (in my newspaper) before I read it and I must admit I found myself wondering whether I'd enjoy it as much as the professional reviewer had. The main story teller is Briseis, a captured highborn female who had been claimed by Achilles as his concubine and it is through her eyes that most of the story is told. The characters we've all heard of, but may not know too much about such as Achilles, Agamemnon and Priam are brought to life through her eyes. I'm pleased to say I enjoyed the book every bit as much as the reviewer did!

Having read a little of Greek mythology and history including some of Troy, Helen and so on I was delighted to be given the opportunity to read this fascinating book.

Written from the viewpoint of Briseis, former princess of the Trojan city of Lyrnessus, now Achilles’s prize, his slave. This take on the Trojan Wars brings home how the fate of women has so often hung on the whim of men. This is a fresh, new and exciting take on Homer’s Iliad. Showing the effect of the Trojan war, indeed pretty much any war, on women and Briseis is a great voice to tell it. However, Pat Barker also gives account of how the war effects the men, how upbringing has shaped attitudes and how accepting of killing, of battle, of war and all it’s consequences men are and, if only for appearances sake, women have to be. Or do they? Should women remain silent? Should they accept their fate? Or can they be outspoken? Should they be willing to loose their own identity, their own traditions, customs and history? It is so very difficult to rail against a mighty foe. Briseis sees how very difficult it is to do any of this, indeed to even be seen as a person rather than a possession.

As we see how the War plays out we find out the fate of Troy, of Briseis, of Achilles, of the women whose silence has been shattered in this very timely, wonderfully brought to life story.

This is a wonderful retelling, reimagining of that piece of history and one that will long live in the memory of the reader.

With thanks to Penguin Books UK, Hamish Hamilton via NetGalley for an eARC of The Silence of the Girls. This review is purely my own thoughts and, for which, I have received no payment.

I was both eager and apprehensive about reading Barker’s retelling of the Iliad. I’d recently read Madeleine Miller’s Song of Achilles and Circe so I wasn’t sure how well this would compete. In addition, Marion Zimmer Bradley (who I have A LOT of issues with) had already retold the Iliad from a female perspective in The Firebrand, so the concept wasn’t new to me. All that being said, Barker does a wonderful job of giving voices to the voiceless. I’ve never thought the men in the story of Troy were much cop – admittedly it was a different time, women were considered chattel, less valuable than a good horse and less intelligent in many cases too – and it’s always refreshing to read a perspective that isn’t covered by Homer’s patriarchal subjugation! This is a difficult book in some ways. Barker doesn’t sugar coat anything and in some respects I couldn’t say I enjoyed it. However it is so intelligently written with clever parallels to our own time, that it’s message is of great importance. Well researched and plotted and beautifully written. A must read.

What a tumult of emotions this book unleashes. ‘The Silence of the Girls’ by Pat Barker is a re-telling of the Trojan War from the viewpoint of Briseis, a captured Trojan queen who is enslaved in the Greek camp and claimed by Achilles as a prize of war. No matter that he killed her husband and brothers; that was the way things worked. Women were chattels without a voice, without feelings.
This is not a simple retelling of a myth, it is a comment on the danger of male-dominated warfare fuelled by anger, hate and a sense of competition while the women are treated as possessions. The first action of a conquering army was to slaughter all babies and pregnant women, to prevent more males being born which may be future enemies. Barker has long written about war, and about women; now she combines the two with a microscopic focus on Briseis. It is an emotional story, overwhelming at times. Some women adapt, others collapse; some fall in love with their captors. The details of daily life are steeped in realism – the butchering, the piss, the blood – and Barker makes you believe it all.
Structurally, the [albeit, short] sections that didn’t work for me were those told by Achilles. I was disappointed to leave Briseis and resented the intrusion of a male voice. In preference I would have preferred to hear from other women – Hecamede perhaps, Ritsa or Iphis – in the style of Barker’s first novel ‘Union Street’ where the stories of the women intertwine so by the end of the book you have a full picture.
At the beginning I worried about getting my Homer and classical history references straight, but realised this was taking me away from Briseis’s story. As soon as I stopped trying to remember ‘The Iliad’, I became entirely wrapped up in the book. Pat Barker never disappoints. She writes with passion, anger and earthiness about war and is a writer who never shirks from the difficult stuff.
Read more of my book reviews at http://www.sandradanby.com/book-reviews-a-z/

The great Greek myth told from a different perspective - finally a voice given to the women. Well-written, with captivating characters and thought-provoking moments. This is one for the brave and the silenced women through the ages. One of the best books I've read this year.

Quality Rating: Four Stars
Enjoyment Rating: Three Stars

I'm still not sure how I feel about this book, and it's been a few days since I finished it. While I admire the aim of the novel and some of the ways it tried to get there, I feel like it loses the magic of the myth. And maybe that's the point, but it lost my interest pretty quickly when the realism became too interested in being 'realism' than it did in telling a story.

I know what the intention for this book was, and there are some times where I could see it straining so hard to get across - which it sometimes does, don't get me wrong! But the point was to take the original of The Iliad and inject reality into the warfare and personality into the women. That was ultimately the main thing that drew me to this book. But you can't achieve that by pointing at someone and saying 'this is a real person' but not follow through in the writing. The women still felt far more stilted to me than the men did, and it felt like they got a lot less attention as well. And the same goes for the warfare; this book was grim beyond a narrative purpose (and when you're writing a book it has to have narrative purpose); you can show humanity (or lack thereof) in more ways than horror. Again, I understand the aim, but it didn't hit the goal for me.

I think the main issue for me was really that it doesn't finish what it starts. If this is to be an account of the Trojan War from the women's - particularly Briseis' perspective - then why are half the chapters devoted to retelling the traditional myth with the men's stories? Are you trying to make a point about men dominating women's narratives by perpetuating it yourself? In all seriousness though, Barker does give up the quest to show the women's lives pretty quickly when Achilles steps on the scene, and then I felt like I was reading something trying to be The Song of Achilles (though of course we can't possibly see two men kiss - fine if you keep in the canon of Briseis' perspective, only it doesn't).

That all being said, in enjoyment terms it did pretty well at redeeming itself towards the end, though the resolution itself was ridiculously rushed and cut off. In showing what else was happening in the camp - while losing the initial intention of the whole thing - did give me more of an actual narrative as a reader. And, as mentioned, I felt like the male characters were better written, sadly.

Contrary to what I may have implied, I did like The Silence of the Girls, as I love pretty much any retelling of Greek myth. I just think that, given the purpose (that was marketed anyway) was to rewrite an epic poem from a more progressive standpoint, it didn't do a whole lot of progressive politics in action.

I have loved Pat Barker's books in the past, but I found this one too bleak to be able to read past the first few chapters. I appreaciate what she was doing and so I don't want to write a negative review, just to say that this was nt the right book for me to read at this point in my life.

WOW! I was really impressed by THE SILENCE OF THE GIRLS. It's such a powerful story, brutal, haunting and so sad. I listened to the audio version and I have to admit that since this was the first book by Pat Barker that I've read so was I not expecting this experience. However, it didn't take me long to really get hooked and I was so sad for all the girls in this book. For how they are viewed as only spoilers of war. To be offered to the winners, while they watch how all the menfolk are being killed off.

It was especially nice to get Briseis story, and not Helen's who has been written so much about. I had no knowledge about Briseis before I read this book and just like Helen did men end up fighting for her. Achilles won her after a battle, but then after Agamemnon had to give up his prize did he demand Briseis from Achilles. And that ladies and gentlemen seriously pissed off Achilles. And then everything went downhill from that point, at least for Achilles. For Briseis has it been hard for a long time. No saying in whom to marry, and being forced to share the bed of the man that then killed your husband. Well, being a woman back then (or even now) is hard.

I definitely recommend reading (or listening to this) book

A retelling of the Trojan War, retold by Brisaeus, the Trojan princess who became Achilles' war prize.
Set in a time where women were the soils of war, and treated as no more than objects, this graphically violent story highlights the inner strength and survival instincts that womean have.
All the people in this book are so human and real, that even though there are miraculous events, and the Gods are a reality, the story seems like a first-hand historic account.
ven though some of the content is difficult to read, it's strangely beautiful. One of the best books I have read this year.

The Silence of Girls is a retelling of Homer's The Iliad from the perspective of the women. Briseis is the narrator, but we see the fate of many other women as well. Barker has done a fantastic job at portraying this gritty and dark world these women have to survive in. This book definitely pulls no punches and is quite brutal at times, so it's not an easy read in that sense. I liked the writing style and although quite slow at times the pacing worked well with the story. Overall I thought this book was great and I would highly recommend checking it out, especially if you are interested in Greek mythology.

This isn't just a straightforward retelling of the Iliad. In fact it's not that at all. This is the story of Briseis (I even googled how to pronounce her name), the queen of one of Troy's neighbouring kingdoms. When her kingdom is sacked by Achilles, she is taken as a slave along with the women and girls who survive, whilst the remaining men and boys are killed. Briseis becomes Achilles concubine - a prize of a battle won.
The violence of war is so graphically described in this novel. Briseis, along with the other slave women, are supposed to care for these mens wounds and fulfil their every (sexual) wish - the very men who had murdered their husbands, fathers and sons.
I've never read a Greek myth from the point of view of the women - they were supposed to be silent. Their stories are forgotten, but Pat Barker brings them to life in this book. We hear their sadness, their worries, their opinions of their masters. I could almost smell the filth, smoke, food and sweat of the Greek camp (in reality, I would imagine that I'd walk in the other direction!).
I've always loved the Greek Myths: I read them as a child and a teenager, and I'm really enjoying the resurgence of these stories at the moment. This novel adds another dimension to these stories, which I really loved. I'd highly recommend this book.
Many thanks to NetGalley and Hamish Hamilton for my copy of this book.

This is such an original idea and book by the fantastic Pat Barker. She has obviously done a huge amount of research and I was really drawn into the story. Highly recommended.

This was not an easy read but then the subject matter was not easy. I’ve always enjoyed mythology and so was delighted to find this story.
A refreshingly original book.

It’s been frequently observed how retellings of Greek myths have dominated literary fiction lately - from Madeline Miller’s “Circe” to Colm Toibin’s “House of Names” to modern retakes like “Home Fire” and “Everything Under”. You’d think with this prolific focus on the same characters and situations it’d come to feel repetitive, but I’m finding the more retellings I read the more engaged I am. It was particularly interesting coming to “The Silence of the Girls” having read “The Song of Achilles” and “House of Names” since they take different perspectives on the same cast. Pat Barker’s narrator is Briseis, a queen of Lyrnessus who is captured when Achilles attacks her city and kills her family. She becomes a trophy lover and a point of contention between Achilles and Agamemnon amidst their squabbling in the Trojan War. This status allows her unique access to some of the most intimate moments leading to the downfall of Troy, but she incisively recounts how painfully dehumanizing these men treat her and how her “privileged” status is in reality no more than that of a slave. It’s a refreshing reassessment of the positions of many characters associated with these tales of war who’ve traditionally been treated as peripheral and the novel’s vividly engaging storytelling kept me gripped.

Briseis is viewed as a possession and exclusively for Achilles’ sexual use. At some points I became frustrated that the focus is placed so much on Achilles rather than taking more time to explore the lives of Briseis and the enslaved women she lives with (such as when they work in the infirmary producing herbal mixtures to treat the wounded soldiers.) But it makes sense that her entire world is consumed with Achilles since she’s completely controlled by him and the other Greeks. Their coupling gives her such an interesting perspective on his private life – especially his issues concerning his mother and male lover. Achilles is presented as such a dynamic and fascinating figure (as well as being a thug.) There are humorous observations such as “no girl ever dressed more carefully for her wedding day than Achilles for the battlefield” as well as more subtle takes on his uniquely intimate relationship with Patroclus: “what I saw on the beach that night went beyond sex, and perhaps even beyond love.” So it feels natural at one point when the narrative is basically handed over to Achilles and Patroclus, but thankfully the focus comes back around to Briseis.

It feels like there is modern relevance in the way Pat Barker writes about several characters and situations. The bloated sense of entitlement and tyrannical egotism of Agamemnon can be seen in any number of bolshy political leaders we have today. The figure of Helen is publicly despised “for the part she’d played in starting this ruinous war” yet all the men want to bed her and the women seek to imitate how she dresses and looks. It feels like there have been modern equivalents in women entangled in sex scandals with political leaders/celebrities who are simultaneously envied and reviled. But the strongest message of the novel is in its insistence on giving voice to the stories of women who’ve traditionally been dismissed or seen as less interesting than the men who subjugated them.

Briseis is magnanimous in recognizing the hardship and suffering of men, many of whom are young and forced to go to war. But she’s absolutely clear in the imbalance that existed between men and women: “They were men, and free. I was a woman, and a slave. And that’s a chasm no amount of sentimental chit-chat about shared imprisonment should be allowed to obscure.” As the novel goes on and the legend of the male figures around her grows, she seems to be cognizant of the diminutive place she’ll take in the songs and stories about them that will live through time. Her frustration about the unbalanced value given to men’s suffering over her own is palpable: “I’d been trying hard to escape not just from the camp, but from Achilles’ story; and I’d failed. Because, make no mistake, this was his story – his anger, his grief, his story. I was angry, I was grieving, but somehow that didn’t matter.” This novel wonderfully wrestles back control of that narrative to give visibility to the emotions and perspectives of the many women sidelined in traditional recitations of The Odyssey.

It’s a cardinal sin to compare one book with another just because they share a theme but I can’t help but compare this with A Song of Achilles and, sadly, find it wanting. It’s marketed as a female perspective on the Iliad but though it is partly narrated by Briseis her viewpoint adds surprisingly little. Perhaps this is because; even though we are in her head for much of the narrative she never really seems to take form. There’s an odd lack of depth to her perceptions that makes her seem like a secondary character in her own narrative, just as she is a secondary character in the original. This becomes particularly evident when Achilles takes over as narrator.

The story breaks little new ground, the characters and events are familiar and the story is still dominated by the relationships between the men, Achilles and Agamemnon, Achilles and Patroclus as they battle in the siege of Troy. Much of the plot is barely fleshed out, relying on existing familiarity in a way that was frustrating in a novel attempting to be a “new take” on the ancient story.

The writing itself was lack-lustre, employing an informal tone that I personally hate, “So, anyway, there I was…” is the kind of teenage-diary style narrative voice that I just cannot bear and jars terribly with the setting.
I wanted something ground-breaking and revolutionary, something with the power, sensitivity and insight of her Regeneration Trilogy but what I got was an uneven take on an old story that dwells surprisingly little on the female experience of ancient warfare. For far more effective female retellings of the Greek myths I’ll stick with Christa Wolf’s wonderful Medea and Cassandra or Madeleine Miller’s Circe.

I've taken a little time to decide on what to write about this book. That's because I was expecting something from the book that I didn't get, and I didn't want my judgement to be clouded,

However, I'm still irked that the book gives up so much time to Achilles and Patroclus, as we've heard their story a thousand times over. I expected more from Briseis as a narrator, and from the other women, and had hoped that Pat Barker would give them the voice they didn't have in The Iliad.

Now that I've thought about the book for a period of time, I'm ready to give it 3 stars.

It's beautifully written, and it does drag the reader through the emotional wringer.

There's a great deal of focus on how the horror of war affects the women, and less time is given over to the descriptions of battles and fighting that we're used to.

But it still focuses too much on Achilles for me.

The most poignant part of the book for me, is when Priam comes to Achilles to beg for the body of his son Hector, which is telling as we're back to having the story of the men of The Iliad told again.

I just feel like I can't give this more than three stars as there's not much new, and I can't imagine I'll want to read it again.

I came to this book with little memory of the story of the Iliad and so I could not compare it to the original tale. However, this meant that I could enjoy the book with little idea of where the plot would go.
I found it an extremely moving, beautifully described tale of the taking of Troy, which for the most part really brought it to life.
After a vicious and violent but compelling start to the book, with Troy being invaded by the Greeks, I confess that I did find myself rather stuck in the tale of everyday life on the Greek camp for a while, possibly due to becoming a little bored with the first person narrative.
The Royal Briseis tells the majority of the tale. She has been given to Achilles as a reward for his part in invading Troy. So life as a slave is in real contrast to her previous life. Her description of life for the enslaved women is mainly fascinating but just seemed to lack pace for part of the book.
However, perseverance in reading paid off and around half way through the book, a third party voice was added to the narrative. I unexpectedly became unable to put the book down. Suddenly, I really did care what happened to the central characters of Achilles, Patroclus and Briseis and I couldn't turn the pages quickly enough. I was then totally swept along by the story until the very end.
I have given the book 4 stars to reflect just how compelling I found Pat Barker's writing in most of it.
Many thanks to the publisher and netgalley for an ARC of the book.

I really love Greek and Roman mythology – I studied Latin until I was 18 and got a taste for stories about wars and gods and heroes, and even before then my favourite school production, when I was around 7, was called ‘Troy story’ – a take on the Trojan horse. I knew, then, before I even started reading it, that I would love The Silence of the Girls. The novel is a retelling of the Trojan War from the perspective of Briseis, who is awarded to Achilles as a prize for his part in destroying her city.

There is no doubt that Achilles’ story is told most often as a heroic one, and so it is interesting to read it from the perspective of Briseis, who does not look at him so affectionately. Achilles killed her husband and her brothers; it is unsurprising that she does not fall in love with him. The opening paragraph of the book shows Briseis refer to him as ‘the butcher.’ It is understandable that Briseis and the other women who were a part of her war held a great hatred for the men who imprisoned them, but interestingly I came to the other end of the book with no hatred for Achilles myself. Perhaps I have been influenced by the more sympathetic portrayal of him in Madeline Miller’s book The Song of Achilles. Or perhaps Barker has cleverly created a complex character who isn’t simply ‘bad’, even though he has done bad things. Either way: I very much enjoyed reading about him – perhaps more than I enjoyed reading about Briseis? – and I am as or more fascinated about his story than I was to start with.

Pat Barker has written some really outstanding prose in this novel. Some paragraphs I read over and over again just because they were so beautifully created. She also uses some very casual language – emphasis on the word ‘Well’ turning it into ‘We-ll’ etc – that I had mixed feelings about. Whilst it brought a kind of reality to the characters that most retellings of mythology don’t manage to do (my particular favourite was an image of Briseis tucking her hands inside her sleeves to keep them warm), it did tend to bring me out of the story a little bit. I understood what she was doing with this casual language, but I think I would have preferred the book without it.

To sum up: this is a wonderful book, and an excellent retelling of the Trojan War from Briseis’ perspective, which is a view I really appreciated seeing from. My only problem was with some of the language choices. I can’t wait to read more from Pat Barker!

A very good rendition of Homer's The Iliad. Brutal at times but at least the author didn't sugar coat the events from that time. A great read of what women had to put up with. Although not an easy read I enjoyed this book.

*Please note this book features portrayals of rape and sexual assault
In a year where both Greek Mythology is dominating the literary scene and #MeToo is dominating the headlines, what else could we expect other than a novel that expertly combines the two, from a laureate of historical fiction, Pat Barker.
The Silence of the Girls tells the story of the Trojan War from the perspective of Briseis, a Trojan princess, who is captured and taken as Achilles’ ‘prize’. For those who know their Iliad, Briseis becomes the centre of a feud between Agamemnon and Achilles, yet like all the women of the story, is denied any agency or voice of her own.

Barker makes no bones about the treatment of the women who have been enslaved – they know their treatment is inhumane, however in this society there is little they can do about it other than strive for the best of not only a bad, but a cruel and monstrous deal. Briseis even uses the word ‘rape’ – an interesting choice for Barker considering this concept did not operate in Greek society the way it does today – ‘rape’ related more to adultery and dishonouring the husband (or possibly father) of the victim. Women’s consent was in no way taken into account and women taken as spoils of war literally became property of soldiers, meaning the men were considered to be entitled to them. Obviously today we can see that this is rape culture at its absolute worst, however it is debatable to the extent that Briseis would really use this language.

It could absolutely be argued that Barker is making the text relatable and accessible for a modern day audience, and possibly that the women would have felt this way, even if they didn’t have the language to express it. However, this is not the only instance of language which feels out of place – though Barker does explain that she intends for it to be jarringly contemporary, in order to compel the reader to see their own time in the novel, right down to the English Rugby songs used for drunken chants. By doing this Barker is using the novel to hold a mirror up to our own moment in history.

Despite this, the novel is a raw exploration of Briseis’ pain and she acknowledges the pain of the women around her too, from Chryseis to Helen herself. We never quite lose Achilles as the central character – after all this is still his story, but Briseis presents him in a new and not at all flattering light, removed from Homer’s heroic epithets. We see in frank terms the horrors that the Greeks inflict upon the women, and we also see Achilles fall in less than heroic terms. Briseis’ fresh pair of eyes allows us to rethink the story and how we look back at Greek civilisation, while at the same time reflecting our own society back at us.

The story is compelling, cleverly subverted and crafted and if not enjoyable, due to the subject matter, it is certainly thought-provoking and a brilliant take on, and interrogation of, the foundations of Western literature.

I received this book as an advanced reader copy from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review; all opinions are my own.