The ancient city of Troy has withstood a decade under siege of the powerful Greek army, which continues to wage bloody war over a stolen woman: Helen. In the Greek camp, another woman watches and waits for the war's outcome: Briseis. She was queen of one of Troy's neighbouring kingdoms until Achilles, Greece's greatest warrior, sacked her city and murdered her husband and brothers. Briseis becomes Achilles's concubine, a prize of battle, and must adjust quickly in order to survive a radically different life, as one of the many conquered women who serve the Greek army.
When Agamemnon, the brutal political leader of the Greek forces, demands Briseis for himself, she finds herself caught between the two most powerful of the Greeks. Achilles refuses to fight in protest, and the Greeks begin to lose ground to their Trojan opponents. Keenly observant and coolly unflinching about the daily horrors of war, Briseis finds herself in an unprecedented position to observe the two men driving the Greek forces in what will become their final confrontation, deciding the fate, not only of Briseis's people, but also of the ancient world at large.
Briseis is just one among thousands of women living behind the scenes in this war-the slaves and prostitutes, the nurses, the women who lay out the dead-all of them erased by history. With breath-taking historical detail and luminous prose, Pat Barker brings the teeming world of the Greek camp to vivid life. She offers nuanced, complex portraits of characters and stories familiar from mythology, which, seen from Briseis's perspective, are rife with newfound revelations. Barker's latest builds on her decades-long study of war and its impact on individual lives-and it is nothing short of magnificent.
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[Great Achilles. Brilliant Achilles, shining Achilles, godlike Achilles... How the epithets pile up. We never called him any of those things; we called him 'the butcher']***
(@PenguinUKBooks, 30 August 2018, 336 pages, ebook, borrowed from @GlasgowLib via @OverDriveLibs)
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I didn't even know this book was a retelling of Troy when I chose it. I liked the title and cover. I didn't even read the blurb until I'd already borrowed it. As soon as I realised what the book was about, I knew I'd made a good choice. I love retellings especially retellings of myths and legends. I loved every word of this book, which focuses on the women of Troy including Helen and Briseis who is the main narrator. Briseis is a strong female character, feisty, determined and able to take care of herself in a masculine world. I'm very familiar with the story of Troy but I enjoyed the author's take on it. The Silence of the Girls focuses on the brutality of war and the price paid by those who don't fight, aka the women, who are passed among men on both sides as trophies. I didn't want to stop reading once I started. I found this book engaging and quite brilliant.
