THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER Following her bestselling critically acclaimed The Silence of the
Girls Pat Barker continues her extraordinary retelling of one of our greatest myths. 'Myth for
a MeToo age. Pat Barker returns to Homer in this gory but unexpectedly uplifting novel' Sunday
Times 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. 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. 'Readers turn to Barker's novels for their plain truths and
clear-eyed sense of our history and creation stories. But the sombre clarity of her writing is
offset by a luminous wisdom' Sunday Times 'The Women Of Troy's immediate beauty is its
accessibility and Barker's precise elegant writing' Metro 'Barker has always looked on the
world with the combination of a cold eye and a sympathetic understanding. Her characterisation
is sharp her sympathy deep' ipaper
