When I read Pat Barker's last book, The Silence of the Girls, 3 years ago I could not wait for her next book to be published. I think that the old saying "absence makes the heart grow fonder" must apply in this case as my expectations were of another 4 Star read and, in truth, I really did not enjoy this book at all. It seemed to have no real storyline and just wandered along until everyone. literally, went home. Truly disappointed.

As a Classicist who continues to work daily in Classics and Ancient World publishing, i a, aware that I might be a bit more critical of Barker’s writing than most readers.

I struggled with Silence of the Girls for several reasons (including the major mis-labelling that these women had been silenced in history, which is entirely wrong - they were a source of great inspiration for many ancient writers including Euripides and Ovid…), but I am always desperate to read anything set in the ancient world, so I was thrilled to receive an ARC of Barker’s sequel.

Unfortunately, I just feel that Barker too easily transposes the setting of her usual WW2 historical narratives onto an ancient world story…You could change a few of the names and very easily feel like you were reading Call the Midwife. There is just something about the work as a whole that jars with me, which is a shame as I really wanted to enjoy Barker’s work…but something isn’t quite right.

I also think there’s something a bit strange in how the volume is cast as The Women of Troy, but it opens with Pyrrhus, and indeed he is given almost as much narrative space as Briseis…I had expected this sequel to follow the women as they voyaged to their new homes in Greece, perhaps following Cassandra to Agamemnon’s fate, or Hecuba with Odysseus. It’s a bit of a shame that in this book, nothing particularly seems to…happen. I do agree that Barker’s characterisation is strong and she has definitely done her research into the ancient world, which is a huge undertaking, but overall this feels more like character-study practice rather than a fully worked novel.

Thank you to NetGalley and Penguin UK for this ARC.

Pat Barker shows again why she’s a master of writing about trauma in this beautifully written novel. A sequel to the Silence of the Girls, the Women of Troy is set after the fall of Troy and the death of Achilles. Our heroine Briseis shows us what happens to the women of Troy after the death of their men, as they are divided among the Greeks and have to cope with their grief and suffering. The Greeks are unable to sail for home and wonder how they have upset the Gods. Barker investigates the cost of victory and examines some of the tropes that have existed in the Iliad and other versions of these tales especially the way they belittled women’s suffering. She breathes life into the female characters who’ve been largely neglected (until the recent surge of excellent novels by Barker, Madeline Miller and Natalie Haynes). The novel’s large cast of characters are expertly described, it tackles difficult themes sensitively and conjures up a very different world in a way that feels authentic and is fascinating.

My only criticism would be the title, while most of the action is shown through Briseis’ eyes, the other two viewpoint characters are Achilles’ son Pyhrrus and the Trojan soothsayer Calchus. I started this novel expecting to hear their voices of more of the women.

I’m now keeping my fingers crossed that we will get a third novel to complete the story as Barker usually writes trilogies.

Actual rating: 4.5/5

CW: this book contains mentions of war, violence (incl. sexual), death (incl. child death and murder), slavery, and misogyny.

I had really liked The Silence of the Girls when it came out, so I was looking forward to the story continuing when I heard there would be a follow-up book. Picking up shortly after the events of The Silence of the Girls, The Women of Troy recounts the aftermath of the fall of Troy - and the fate of its women.

This book is just as powerful and hard-hitting as the previous one, and in some ways even more so as the pain of the women cuts so much deeper. War is a nasty, cruel business, and behind every glorious hero lies a trail of death and destruction, innocent lives cut short and severe pain inflicted. And the women of Troy will never be able to forget this.

Briseis is back as our main narrator and, now a survivor of the camp, she takes it upon herself to ease the pain of the new arrivals, helping them in accepting their new lives as slaves and ensuring all of them survive. Meanwhile, Briseis herself struggles to navigate her new position as Alcimus's wife while carrying Achilles's son.

As with the previous book, the author does a masterful job of giving a voice to the silenced women of history, not shying away from the brutality and violence of their lives but leaning into their pain and suffering to fully show their strength, resilience and quiet resistance. The cast of women is memorable, each of them carrying her own personal burden.

Helen, despised by all and universally blamed for the war.

Hecuba, old and frail and mourning her loved ones and the loss of her life's work.

Cassandra, abused time and again and having to find ways for men to deliver her prophecies if they are to be believed.

Andromache, reeling from the loss of her husband and the brutal murder of her infant son, forced to lie with the man who killed him.

Amina, stubborn and proud and determined to homage her king one last time by burying him, whatever the consequences.

And so many, many more.

The Women of Troy hits hard yet manages to tell so much suffering in a delicate, respectful way, restoring the dignity of otherwise forgotten women. Highly recommended to anyone looking for more feminist retellings of traditional myths.

This was a good follow up to Silence of the Girls, but I must admit I preferred that one. This one had a sense of bleakness about it which, is to be expected, but sat quite heavily on my shoulders at time.
Pat Barker's writing was amazing as always - she always writes so evocatively and this book wasn't any different.

This is a very fresh take on an ancient story and it never feels dated, perhaps because, as a female, it is all too easy to be aware that sexual assault is still an issue in the modern world, particularly in war zones.

I read Barker's Regeneration Trilogy as a teenager and fell in love with her writing. Somewhere between then and now, her books got lost to me. Through The Silence Of The Girls and The Women of Troy it feels like I've reconnected with an old friend. The beauty of Barker's writing is that she doesn't skirt around anything - each atrocity is delivered in a blunt, straightforward manner that does nothing to shield the reader, but it never feels overdone. Nothing is gratuitous and every word is made to count for something. The other strength of her work is that even the 'villains' elicit a level of sympathy. By telling part of the story from Pyrrhus' perspective, Barker humanises him without excusing him and the reader sees the motivations for his behaviour and understands him a little more. It makes him a much more rounded character, which is a little disturbing for the reader but absolutely necessary for the book to work.

I'm very much hoping that there will be a third installment in this excellent series.

Full review to be posted on my blog on 23rd August.

Wow! A stunning follow up to The Silence of the Girls, Barker once again takes us back tp Troy and the aftermath of the Trojan war seen through the eyes of Briseis (former war prize and slave woman to Achilles) and the many e]nslaved Trojan women in the camp, The Greek warrior at the center of the action is Pyrrhus the young son of Schilles who knows he can never match his father in strength or character and who has a mean streak that just can't help revealing itself. The cast of woman includes hecuba, queen of Troy, Andromache the wife of Hector and Cassandra the doomed prophetess fated to be married off to Agamemnon and who foresee his death at the hands of his wife Clytemenestra.
The women prove resourceful and brave and handle their lot with as much dignity as they can. It is a fascinating look at a time in the dying days of the Greek occupation of Trojan lands after the city has been destroyed and the spoils divided and yet due to awful weather the ships are unable to leave. Briseis is the link between the story of the Silence of the Girls and the women of Troy and provides a "roadmap" of sorts to her enslaved counterparts as well as having a knowledge of Achilles and all that happened during the war that others don't.
Thoroughly readable, will be enjoyed alongside books like 1000 ships, daughter of Sparta and Troy all of which hit the shelves this year.

This is my first Pat Barker read and overall, I was impressed. I know this the sequel the The Silence of the Girls but I didn't feel like I needed to have read the first one to know what was happening. However, this might be because I'm quite a fan of Greek mythology so I have a good idea of the background of the Trojan war. What better way to start a book than from the inside of the Trojan horse itself? Written from different character's perspectives it really enables you to get a better insight of the fallout of the war and also see how blurred the lines become as character's go from slaves to wives of generals and vice versa. How they have to adjust to these tumultuous life events or they choose not to. I did enjoy the book but sometimes Barker's writing left me feeling a little unsettled. She describes more than one character as looking 'retarded' purely because they were slightly dazed and her description of Maire, one of the more voluptuous maids, was borderline offensive. As I mentioned, this is my first time reading a Barker novel so it may just be her plain speaking style of writing but it did leave me feeling a little uncomfortable. Overall though, I enjoyed the storyline of the aftermath of the Trojan war and the fact that voices were given to previously silenced women.

Thank you @netgalley for this ARC in return for an honest review.

While I absolutely loved ‘The Silence of the Girls’ I felt like ‘The Women of Troy’ didn’t quite have the same feeling or vibe.
Silence seemed to hold this air of hope throughout the book, while Women felt like it was almost rudderless and pointless in light of that feeling.
Women seemed to contribute no more to Briseis’ story than to see her struggle and suffer more.
I do love how Baker writes characters in such a way as to really bring them to life, she definitely has a wondrous skill of writing ‘real’ people.
Once again I didn’t love the switch between 1st person and 3rd person so we could follow other characters.
It was a well researched book full of three dimensional characters that were all flawed and realistic but overall it felt unnecessary in regard to the story told.

A follow on to Silence of the Girls to help book carries on in the same vein and good to have perspective after the death of Achilles. Pat Barker has provided us with yet another excellent book.

I got this because I had loved ‘the silence of the girls’ but while I enjoyed being back with the familiar characters, I don’t think that’ this sequel necessarily added a lot to the story.
Her writing is fantastic as always and brings the history to life very vividly, so fans of the original won’t be disappointed.

The Silence of the Girls was one of my favourite reads, and I was so excited to continue the story. I have a very basic knowledge of the Greek classics, and so it was a little bit confusing at times, but I found this one much easier to read as it follows a lot of the same characters. I know there is a Greek play called Women of Troy by Euripides, and I couldn't help feeling I would have got much more out of this book if I knew more about the original story.

The whole story is set after the Trojan war, when the victorious Greeks are stranded at the whim of the gods. The book is quite exhausting, as the men get angrier and more fed up at being trapped, unable to go home, reflected in the women who are trapped by their captors and whose home has been destroyed. I absolutely loved the deep dive into each female character as Briseis discovered more about them, including Helen and Cassandra.

One for real fans of retellings of Greek myths. A great story, well written, but it left me wanted to look up many other connected stories and read more about everyone!

This book is a follow-up to The Silence of the Girls and continues the story of the Greek-Trojan wars through the eyes of the same heroine, Briseis. Briseis was originally the Queen of King Mynes of Lyrnessus but after the fall of the city she was taken as a prize by, firstly, Agamemnon and then Achilles. This story begins in the period after Achilles has died when Briseis is pregnant with his child and married to Alcimus and it covers the period when the triumphant Greek fleet is becalmed outside Troy and unable to return home.

The Trojan women are a sad group. A few have been married off to warriors, others are concubines and the rest are prostituted to be used by whomever. Much of the book is about the attempts made by Briseis to make their lives in some ways more bearable.

The subplots involve the non-burial of the murdered king of Troy, Priam. He was killed by Pyrrhus, the other son of Achilles who leaves him to rot, a cardinal sin in the eyes of those who think that his soul cannot rest without a proper burial. There is also another pregnancy to deal with among the women as well as negotiating with the aged Hecuba and the prophetess Cassandra. Meanwhile, the men in the camp grow increasingly restless worried that the lack of a breeze is a sign from the gods that they have done something wrong. It’s all a bit of a cauldron and likely to boil over at any moment but, eventually, Priam is buried with due ceremony and the winds begin to blow.

It’s a good follow-up if you enjoyed the previous book but not as convincing or raw. Sometimes, it reads like ‘Briseis Saves the Day’ rather than powerfully evoking a grim period. Briseis herself goes around doing good, but there is surprisingly little mention of her pregnancy except to point out that carrying Achilles’ son is a good form of defence against all manner of enemies. It’s an easier read than the first novel but maybe that isn’t a good thing and possibly this particular horse, unlike that of Pyrrhus which narrowly escapes being sacrificed, has run its race.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publishers for my ARC copy!

The Women of Troy picks up not long after the end of The Silence of the Girls, opening with the Greek warriors stuffed inside the Trojan Horse, ready for the final assault on Troy. Briseis' narration starts in chapter three, and seeing the sacking of Troy through Pyrrhus' eyes - along with the death of Priam - before moving to seeing the aftermath through the eyes of a woman helped establish the cycle of men acting, and women dealing with the consequences. I can see why people dislike the use of male voices (Pyrrhus and Calchas) throughout the narrative, but I viewed their narration as a way of showing that the women held more power than the men thought they did. In the case of Pyrrhus, for example, it showed that Amina, the lowest of the low, had power over the man who was meant to be the Hero of Troy, simply becaus she saw him in a way that didn't befit his title. The same went for Calchas - it showed how his previous loyalties to Priam's house - and the women that made up his household - became a weakness that the women ultimately exploited.

I liked the power and the agency that was given to Cassandra. In other books concerning the Trojan War and the aftermath of the fall of Troy, I've seen Cassandra portrayed as a screaming, almost rabid, madwoman. This, thankfully, was not the case in Women of Troy. While her episodes of madness are mentioned, whenever Briseis interacts with Cassandra, she is collected and in control of herself and the situation. She understood her fate and the role she had to play. There was a particularly poignant moment, where Calchas is delivering a prophecy originally given by Cassandra, and she notes that she is only believed when her prophecies are coming from the mouth of a man. That hit hard.

There were two things in the book that I wasn't sure of: the use of the r-word, and, at times, the pacing. Although I understand the contextual use of the r-word, and it was only used twice, a different word still could have been used. The pacing seemed off at certain moments, as there were some instances that I felt could have been developed further, such as Brisies spending time with the other women, but the stunted moments between Briseis and Alcimus highlighted the fragmented nature of their marriage. I would have liked to have seen Briseis spend more time with Amina and the other women, but I suppose that this came with the territory of Briseis moving from Achilles' prize to Alcimus' wife.

The thread of legacy and consequence runs clearly throughout the book, and that's what raised it to a 4* read for me. We see Pyrrhus trying to fill Achilles' footsteps while also carving out an identity separate from his father (there was a lovely moment where he describes Achilles being everywhere in the camp towards the end of the book); Briseis being pregnant with Achilles' child and how this affected her relationships with men and women throughout the camp, simply because Achilles is the father of her child; Alcimus trying to become the husband that Achilles said he would be; the impact of Priam's death on his household, and how the captured Trojan women come to terms with their new identites as the property of the Greeks - who are they now? Again, the cycle of choice and consequence is one that impacts heavily on the women, and this is something that Barker expertly brings to the fore.

Overall, this was a character-driven, reflective read that I really enjoyed. Barker's writing style is easily one of my favourite, and she maintains the perfect balance of brutality and emotion that I loved about The Silence of the Girls.

After receiving my free ARC of this book (thanks) and starting it, I realised there was a predecessor so I bought that to read first and was glad I did as I really enjoyed it.
This book was good but not to the same standard in the absence of the complex Achilles. Worth reading though. 3.5 * rounded up to 4 on the quality of the pair of books..

I love Pat Barker’s writing. Her writing brings everything to life and this book is no different. Through her writing and Briseis’ narration you get immersed in the lives of the women of Troy, as they are surrounded by their Greek captors. The Greeks are all just waiting in the camps for the weather to calm so they can set sail home. You get a real sense in this story that the men’s lives are going on whilst the women have to look after themselves and wait for the men to call on them. You can feel the sense of boredom, uncertainty and fear that must have surrounded the women whilst they just had to sit and wait for something to happen.

Another wonderful retelling of classical myths, Pat Barker has done it again with her reassessment of women from Troy. The Greeks may have won their war and can return home as the victors but a lack of wind means they remain where they murdered, camped in the city they destroyed, being looked after by the women they took as their own. We learn of Helen, known for her beauty and grace, just another woman to please a man and for men to fight over. There’s young Amina, who wants to avenge her king’s slaughter and Briseis, who is pregnant with the unborn child of her Achilles, now dead. She moves from woman to woman, consoling and conversing, all too aware that within her she has the chance to shape history. It feels like an intimate read; you’re right in the camp with the women, you walk where they walk, you appreciate how they feel when forced to spend time with men with whom they never chose to partner. It’s also an extremely powerful read that puts women at the forefront of such an important set of stories.

I have just finished this book and I feel almost bereft - I absolutely loved it. The Trojan war is finished and the victorious Greeks just want to go home but the gods have been offended and a gale straight off the sea is keeping them stranded on the beach. The Trojan women are now either slaves or honour prizes for the Greek kings and warriors. Briseis is pregnant with Achilles' child and therefore protected to a degree but the treatment of Priam's queen Hecuba is harsh - given to Odysseus she will travel to Ithaca as soon as the wind allows. Priam's daughter Cassandra is forced into a marriage that she knows will not last - although no one listens to her prophecies she knows they are true. Pat Barker is such a superb author and I love everything she writes but he series on the women of Troy are the best.

This is another outing with a new-to-me author and again I'm wondering why I've left it so long.

The beautiful and previously deemed impregnable fortress city of Troy has fallen and the males - all men, boys, and male babies - have been killed to end the Trojan bloodlines and prevent potential future uprisings. The women of Troy, those who did not end their lives rather than be captured, have all been divided between the leaders of the conquering Greek armies as spoils of war, to be used as concubines and slaves. Briseis is one of the more 'fortunate' ones. Having been the concubine of Achilles and now pregnant with his child she has been respectably married off to one of his most loyal men which gives her a level of protection that most of the women do not have. Through her eyes we see the turmoil and trauma of the women of Troy as they grieve their loved ones and the loss of the home they loved and felt safe in, and experience the uncertainty of their new lives where a woman's life depends on the humour of the man she has been given to. And who is likely to be the same man responsible for the deaths of her family. There are politics among the Greek leaders too, although that doesn't feature in this book as strongly as I expected it to.

I loved this retelling of the aftermath of the fall of Troy. This book follows The Silence Of The Girls which I am intending to read very soon. Because I enjoy Greek mythology and history I am familiar with the story of Troy and the main characters, so I don't expect to have any trouble going backward to where this book series began. I am also hoping there will be another book so that I can continue to follow Briseis's story.

Even if you are not familiar with the fall of Troy you will not have difficulty following the names and places mentioned as the author manages to keep everything very clear, not always an easy feat. I highly recommend this book. Give it a go!

“Darkness at the break of noon”

Pat Barker continues the extraordinarily powerful journey she began in The Silence of The Girls, a submersion into the events recounted in Homer’s Iliad, told through the powerless – women, part of the spoils of war. The Silence of the Girls had, as its central narrator Briseis, named in the Iliad, who saw her brothers and husband killed by Achilles, and was then given to the ‘hero’ as reward, along with the gold and precious commodities victors take from the vanquished.

Briseis continues this journey in The Trojan Women, beginning where the earlier book ends. Achilles has been killed. Troy is under siege. Briseis, given now as wife to a close friend of Achilles, Alcimedes, a decent man, is pregnant with Achilles son. Achilles legitimate heir is the erratic Pyrrhus, only 16, desperate to be worthy and admired like his dead father.

Wily Odysseus masterminds the fall of Troy via the Trojan Horse, (‘beware of Greeks bearing gifts’) Here we have again a cast of mythic figures – Agamemnon, Priam, Meneleus ,Cassandra, Hecuba, Helen, Andromache– and the unnamed, suffering other Trojan women.

All the Trojan men are dead, killed by the Greek forces, even the boy infants and babies. Even a Trojan unborn baby boy will be killed once born. The women are slaves, the best fate that can be envisaged for the wives and daughters of powerful Trojans is to be the concubine of a powerful Greek hero (as Briseis was) This is the best outcome. Lesser born young women and girls will be used by several soldiers.

This is a brutal world, with little glory. Barker, a magnificent writer, inhabits this reeking post battlefield world in a way which not only brings the past to life, but, even more uneasily, must remind us of more recent conflicts, even now, where women are still the spoils of war.

Barker does not bash the reader round the head with her research, but reading this, for the most part, I certainly felt ‘within history’

There is a wonderful moment of dangerous subversion. Pyrrhus, following an extremely shocking, brutal act, in which he tries to equal a similarly shocking, vengeful act of brutality done by Achilles, issues an edict. Anyone breaking this horrible ‘law’ will be brutally killed. Someone does. Suspicion falls upon the only two Trojans who were not slain. But neither are responsible. None of the Greek commanders and kings have considered that there are many more living Trojans. Women fall as much beneath the radar as horses, dogs, cattle and the like, as possible perpetrators of this ‘crime’ (in fact, an act of mercy)

A marvellous, resonant, shocking story giving voice to the women, named or unnamed, of history

I received this gratefully as a digital ARC from the publishers, via NetGalley, for review