The Women of Troy
In this immersive read, Pat Barker takes up the threads of her previous book, The Silence of the Girls, continuing the story after the fall of Troy. The victorious Greek troops wait to sail home with their booty. But the gods are offended. King Priam lies unburied, and until he is given due honours, the winds will not change direction and thus they cannot set sail. The book is told as both the captured women and the victors live in limbo, outside the city that has been laid to waste.
Briseis lives with the other captured women survivors. She was a trophy wife to Achilles, now dead, and has been passed to Alcimus. The baby of Achilles kicks inside her as she tells her story, with other perspectives provided by the seer, Calchas, and Pyrrhus, son of Achilles. The latter, for his part, lives in the shadow of his dead father, and his character becomes a vehicle for Barker’s analysis of the fragility of masculinity.
In the main this is a story told with a tight focus on the silenced voices of the women, raped, enslaved, and in fear of their lives. Their men and boys have been killed, down to (almost) every last male baby. This is a story of aftermath, of an uneasy peace as despairing women grieve, burning with resentment, whilst triumphant men confront their own bloody legacy. Briseis attempts to live a truthful life, supporting the other women as she does so, as far as she can.
This is a compelling, characterful and beautifully written read. This modern classic is a story told by those often left voiceless in mythology, women who assert their own fragile agency to bear witness, defy where they can and to survive.
