The Women of Troy — Pat Barker

Paperback | Anchor Books | September 6, 2022

The Gist

Though their city has fallen, Briseis, Hecuba, Andromache, and more Trojan women continue to fight for survival in the Greek encampment where old feuds and tensions have returned. It’s not a revenge story.

Read if you like

• The Silence of the Girls by Pat Barker

• Literary fiction

• Retellings

• The Iliad and The Odyssey by Homer

Verdict: Pass On it

Troy has fallen. The city is abandoned. The men and boys (even unborn children) have been killed. Priam and many others remain unburied, their souls doomed to walk the earth forever. The women who have survived continue to fight for their lives as they navigate the Greek camp, which is growing more restless by the day because of an unnatural wind that’s preventing them from sailing home. The Women of Troy is a sequel to The Silence of the Girls and once again Briseis is Barker’s lead. She is pregnant with Achilles' child (to her anguish) and is married to one of his most-trusted men, Alcimus. These two facts are the only things that are keeping her alive and giving her the freedom to move about safely. The devastation of war and the brutal treatment of women in its aftermath is at the center of this sequel. Barker’s writing is clinical and blunt. The language she uses shows both the brutality Briseis and other Trojan women face, as well as how they have become indifferent and numb to their circumstances. They are alive, but no longer living. Many known characters from The Iliad and The Odyssey appear. However, through Briseis, Barker makes a point to take these allegedly “heroic” male figures and call their actions into question. But while Briseis’s character is strong and Barker’s themes are ever-present, the plot is slow and falls short. While it’s publicized as a “revenge” story (which implies a fast-moving, dramatic plot), the real point of contention is over Priam’s unburied body. Briseis doesn’t seek vengeance, but rather brings it upon herself to keep those she has left alive—despite their own grudges and ambitions.