Error loading page.
Try refreshing the page. If that doesn't work, there may be a network issue, and you can use our self test page to see what's preventing the page from loading.
Learn more about possible network issues or contact support for more help.

The Women of Troy

Audiobook
0 of 1 copy available
Wait time: About 16 weeks
0 of 1 copy available
Wait time: About 16 weeks

Brought to you by Penguin.
Following her bestselling, critically acclaimed The Silence of the Girls, Pat Barker continues her extraordinary retelling of one of our greatest myths.
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.
'Taut, masterly, wholly absorbing. Still one of the greatest stories ever written. A book that will be read in generations to come' Daily Telegraph on The Silence of the Girls
© Pat Barker 2021 (P) Penguin Audio 2021

  • Creators

  • Series

  • Publisher

  • Release date

  • Formats

  • Languages

  • Reviews

    • Publisher's Weekly

      Starred review from June 7, 2021
      In Barker’s masterly continuation of her fiercely feminist take on Homer’s Iliad (after The Silence of the Girls), the Greeks drag their wooden horse into Troy and achieve victory after a 10-year siege, but a freak storm prevents their ships from returning home. As time drags on, Briseis, the heroine of the previous installment, struggles to survive as an enemy noncombatant prisoner in the siege camp. A former queen of a Trojan ally, she was kidnapped by Achilles as his prize of honor and turned into his sex slave. But now Achilles is dead and Briseis is pregnant. Handed down to Lord Alcimus as his wife, she spends her days, as soldiers play football with a human head, commiserating with the other Trojan women—Hecuba, Cassandra, Andromache and, of course, Helen, the cause of the war. Briseis shares narrative duties with Pyrrhus, the bloodthirsty son of Achilles, and Calchas, a canny priest of Troy. In a novel filled with names from legend, Briseis stands tall as a heroine: brave, smart and loyal. The author makes strategic use of anachronistic language (“living in the real world,” “keep a low profile”) to illuminate characters living at the dawn of myth. Barker’s latest is a wonder. Agent: Clare Alexander, Aitken Alexander Assoc.

    • AudioFile Magazine
      Author Pat Barker and narrator Kristin Atherton combine their considerable powers in this second volume of Barker's Trojan trilogy, giving us a remarkable listening experience. After Troy's collapse, the victorious Greeks are trapped by onshore wind and cannot sail home. Instead, for 10 months, they drink and fight and plot. Filled with clever sketches of such mythic Greek figures as Agamemnon, Menelaus, Helen, and Clytemnestra, the story revolves around the now-enslaved women of Troy, and Briseis, a former Trojan slave who is pregnant with Achilles's son. Atherton imbues her clear, firm, warm voice with the intensity of a bard speaking across a campfire. Measured and vivid, she offers subtle vocal portraits of the protagonists and relishes every perfectly chosen word in this tale of honor, pride, and survival. A.C.S. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2021, Portland, Maine

Formats

  • OverDrive Listen audiobook

Languages

  • English

Loading