Natalie Haynes

A feminist retelling of the Trojan War - giving voices to the women the myths forgot . . .

A Thousand Ships

"With her trademark passion, wit, and fierce feminism, Natalie Haynes gives much-needed voice to the silenced women of the Trojan War."--Madeline Miller, author of Circe Shortlisted for the Women's Prize for Fiction, a gorgeous retelling of the Trojan War from the perspectives of the many women involved in its causes and consequences--for fans of Madeline Miller. This is the women's war, just as much as it is the men's. They have waited long enough for their turn . . . This was never the story of one woman, or two. It was the story of them all . . . In the middle of the night, a woman wakes to find her beloved city engulfed in flames. Ten seemingly endless years of conflict between the Greeks and the Trojans are over. Troy has fallen. From the Trojan women whose fates now lie in the hands of the Greeks, to the Amazon princess who fought Achilles on their behalf, to Penelope awaiting the return of Odysseus, to the three goddesses whose feud started it all, these are the stories of the women whose lives, loves, and rivalries were forever altered by this long and tragic war. A woman's epic, powerfully imbued with new life, A Thousand Ships puts the women, girls and goddesses at the center of the Western world's great tale ever told. --Madeline Miller, author of Circe

A Novel

Samantha Murguia

If he complains to me again, I will ask him this: is oenone less of a hero than Menelaus? He loses his wife so he stirs up an army to bring her back to him, costing countless lives and creating countless widows, orphans, and slaves. Oenone loses her husband and she raises their son. Which of those is the more heroic act?

'So why do you single me out for blame?' Helen asked. 'Paris came to me, remember? He came to Sparta, and to the palace of Menelaus, for one purpose only: to seduce me.'

And because she had lost the thing she held most dear, and because she had not merely lost it but had herself destroyed it, and because there was no possibility that she could go on living without Hippolyta, Penthesilea resolved to die

When a war was ended, the men lost their lives. But the women lost everything else. 

Jordan

Menalaus loses his wife so he stirs up an army to bring her back to him, costing countless lives and creating countless widows, orphans and slaves. Oenone loses her husband and she raises their son. Which of those is the more heroic act?

But this is a women's war, just as much as it is the men's, and the poet will look upon their pain - the pain of the women who have always been relegated to the edges of the story, victims of men, survivors of men, slaves of men - and he WILL tell it, or he will tell nothing at all. They have waited long enough for their turn.

How much epic poetry does the world really need?-Does he really believe he has something new to say?

Apiecalypse Jen

Is Oenone any less of a hero than Minilaias? He loses his wife so he stirs up and army to bring her back to him costing countless lives and causing countless widows and slaves. Oenone loses her husband, and she raises their son.

Amira BEN

It is manifestly absurd that in this whole horrific saga of war and tragedy, it is the death of his old dog which has upset me almost more than anything.

They still have their lives, but they have given up everything else in order to keep them. They sacrifice what they do not realize they have until they have lost it. And so the man who can win the war can only rarely survive the peace.

She felt a sudden rush of anger flow through her, at Paris, at Priam, at Hector, at all of them. At all the men who should have protected her and who had instead left her. And her anger was tinged with the jealousy that they had died and she would be enslaved.

‘You wiped out my line,’ Hecabe whispered. ‘Now I have wiped out yours. And I leave you alive to remember that had you not been a traitor, a murderer, a breaker of vows and deceiver of friends, your sons would still be delighting you into your old age. You would have seen them grow up as you grew old. Now you know that the last thing you will ever see was their death. I hope the gold was worth it.’

Is Oenone less of a hero than Menelaus? He loses his wife so he stirs up an army to bring her back to him, costing countless lives and creating countless widows, orphans and slaves. Oenone loses her husband and she raises their son. Which of those is the more heroic act?

There are so many ways of telling a war: the entire conflict can be encapsulated in just one incident. One man’s anger at the behaviour of another, say. A whole war–all ten years of it–might be distilled into that.

 But this is the women’s war, just as much as it is the men’s, and the poet will look upon their pain–the pain of the women who have always been relegated to the edges of the story, victims of men, survivors of men, slaves of men–and he will tell it, or he will tell nothing at all. They have waited long enough for their turn.

And would he really have overlooked Laodamia, as so many poets have before him? A woman who lost so much so young deserves something, even if it’s just to have her story told. Doesn’t she?

Men’s deaths are epic, women’s deaths are tragic: is that it? He has misunderstood the very nature of conflict. Epic is countless tragedies, woven together. Heroes don’t become heroes without carnage, and carnage has both causes and consequences. And those don’t begin and end on a battlefield.

‘Is that the only measure of greatness? Killing so many that you have lost count? Making no distinction between warriors and unarmed men and women?’

Mother of four sons who would not bury her, when her time came. Four sons who had not survived the war. Sons obliterated by the folly of another woman’s son.

When a war was ended, the men lost their lives. But the women lost everything else.

Ten years of a conflict whose heroes had already made their way into the songs of poets, and victory belonged to none of the men who had fought outside the walls, not Achilles nor Hector, both long since dead. Instead, it belonged to the man they had found hiding in the reeds, near the horse, who said his name was–she could not remember. A hissing sound, like a snake.

No one believed their pretext: that they had come to claim back some woman who had run off with one of Priam’s boys. The idea was laughable.

The Greeks were being punished for their impiety, for their senseless refusal to accept that Troy would not fall, could not fall to mortal men. Not to men like these, these arrogant Greeks with their tall ships and their bronze armour, glinting in the sun because not one of them could tolerate the notion that he should labour in obscurity, unseen and unadmired.

In A Thousand Ships, broadcaster and classicist Natalie Haynes retells the story of the Trojan War from an all-female perspective. This was never the story of one woman, or two. It was the story of all of them. . . In the middle of the night, Creusa wakes to find her beloved Troy engulfed in flames. Ten seemingly endless years of brutal conflict between the Greeks and the Trojans are over, and the Greeks are victorious. Over the next few hours, the only life she has ever known will turn to ash . . . The devastating consequences of the fall of Troy stretch from Mount Olympus to Mount Ida, from the citadel of Troy to the distant Greek islands, and across oceans and sky in between. These are the stories of the women embroiled in that legendary war and its terrible aftermath, as well as the feud and the fatal decisions that started it all. . . Powerfully told from an all-female perspective, A Thousand Ships gives voices to the women, girls and goddesses who, for so long, have been silent.

sharkie

beautiful prose and narrative style. I loved the idea of focusing on the women of the Trojan War, who history never really talks about. 

I also loved how, no matter what happened or which character was narrating, the women were always the ones to "save themselves" and how they influenced their destiny. 

Denisse Garcia Ramírez 

beautiful prose and narrative style. I loved the idea of focusing on the women of the Trojan War, who history never really talks about. 

I also loved how, no matter what happened or which character was narrating, the women were always the ones to "save themselves" and how they influenced their destiny. 

Chris Dailey

A new take on the oldest tale from a fresh perspective. Told mainly through vignettes with some threads tying the narrative together, the Iliad gets refresh when told from the view of the women involved. Family, war, love, loss, pain, pettiness, vanity - we've get it all. Despite the spoilers, it's stilling moving and emotional with the biggest feat being turning the archetypical masculine story on its head.

Andrea Morales

“this was never a story of one woman, or two. it was the story of all of them. 
a war does not ignore half the people whose lives it touches. so why do we?”

dios mío que belleza de libro. well no, not solo belleza. leer sobre las vidas de mujeres en tiempos de guerra es en equal parts absolutamente devastating como una necesidad. en la guerra de Troya sólo escuchamos historias de Aquiles, Odiseo, Héctor. escuchamos la gente que mataron, lo que saquearon. pero nadie se detiene a pensar en las viudas, las huérfanas, las abusadas y robadas. las que pelean y las que dejan atrás.

adoré la forma en que la autora nos muestra mujeres silenciadas, impotentes, pero también las que tomaron las riendas de su situación, con el poder que encontraban. sin embargo, la guerra afectó no solo a los hombres que peleaban, significando que hubo mujeres que lastimaban y oprimían. 

cada historia brindaba insights en momentos de vulnerabilidad (y poder) en vidas distintas, desde realeza a esclavitud. the fact that they’re all woven together brings out the point que la guerra, como afecta a los hombres y afecta a las mujeres, es una experiencia colectiva, lo que haga Aquiles resuena generaciones después.
the men destroyed Troy, but the women rebuilt it.

A compelling, touching and, at times, humorous retelling of the Trojan War from the perspective of neglected female characters.

Laura Dobie

lala

After reading The Children of Jocasta I feel an itch to read A Thousand Ships. I read it with no expectations as to what stories it tell. Just by the title, I thought it'll be Helen's perspective only, as Helen is usually dubbed as "the face that launched a thousand ships". Much to my surprise, this book covers more ground than Euripides' play The Trojan Women. I am well versed in the Trojan War, having read the story over and over again, but I still find this book to be well written and well researched. I like how Haynes only use the perspective of women in the war, even when telling the men's stories. My only complaint is in Penelope's perspective she talks too much about Odysseus (boooring).

This was so good that I started and finished it in 9 hours

Caroline Boone

Teresa Bonifácio

Mythology has been my go to when reading books or hearing audiobooks. 

This book came straight from Zeus himself. The way the author writes about these women, what lead to the Trojan war and the consequences of it, is amazing. Seeing this from their eyes was something good!

Have you literally never heard of the Trojan War? Would you like to hear every event of the Trojan War out of order, info dump-style, delivered in the most dry tone, through the eyes of the women who can only experience trauma or worry about/mourn the men in their lives? Then this book is for you!

I’m a huge Madeline Miller fan, and so I thought this retelling from the perspective of only the women (wait, that’s a lie – the author head hops into a few men throughout) would deliver something fresh, emotional, a new take on the source material. I was so wrong.

Points of view lengths vary from 1/10th of the entire book to just 2 pages. It’s like whiplash. And the fact that Helen is gossiped about, hated on, every treated of her character through the lens of misogyny and patriarchy, yet we don’t get her perspective? That’s the most egregious error to me.

I’ll never understand the high ratings for this book.

Katelyn Caillouet

Have you literally never heard of the Trojan War? Would you like to hear every event of the Trojan War out of order, info dump-style, delivered in the most dry tone, through the eyes of the women who can only experience trauma or worry about/mourn the men in their lives? Then this book is for you!

I’m a huge Madeline Miller fan, and so I thought this retelling from the perspective of only the women (wait, that’s a lie – the author head hops into a few men throughout) would deliver something fresh, emotional, a new take on the source material. I was so wrong.

Points of view lengths vary from 1/10th of the entire book to just 2 pages. It’s like whiplash. And the fact that Helen is gossiped about, hated on, every treated of her character through the lens of misogyny and patriarchy, yet we don’t get her perspective? That’s the most egregious error to me.

I’ll never understand the high ratings for this book.

Julie Rubens

Such an AMAZING book!! I read it in two days and I absolutely loved every minute of it! I have Greek mythology at school, so I knew the main storyline, but I loved reading it from another perspective! Would 1000% recommend!!

Marcy Pursell 

** spoiler alert **
           If you like Greek mythology, or the story of the Trojan War, and are looking for a different perspective, that of the women, this is the book for you. Told from the perspectives of both Greeks, Trojans, Goddesses and others, it's a fascinating tale of what happens to the women.

I have no words to truly express how impactful and heartbreaking and filled with feminine rage this is. The audiobook read by the author herself gave me chills!

rita

lots of bits that i liked, some parts i found boring. the start was a bit off for me but i reread parts i bookmarked and i def liked it better

I wanted it to be more than it was. Some of it is terrific. It's retelling but from the perspectives of the women in the stories of Greek mythologies. The issue is that sometimes it hits the mark very well and other times it just centers around men still but just almost being narrated by a woman on the scene. It does sort of move from place to place, from character to character so the critique is not fixed. There are moments of this book that are so brilliantly done that it is worth reading it for those times it does hit alone because when it get's it right, it gets it so right. 

Nathalie Haynes masterfully re used the trojan war story by giving a unique voice to the female characters we meet in the Iliad. 

Reading the Iliad lately I can see the accuracy of it and at the same time many new angles given by their untold perspectives of the war. Such a great book. 

Meanwhile another inaccurate ✨poem✨ for Achilles is more appreciated than this 🥲 a poem for silenced women. 

Well I kinda have no words 

Nathalie Haynes masterfully re used the trojan war story by giving a unique voice to the female characters we meet in the Iliad. 

Reading the Iliad lately I can see the accuracy of it and at the same time many new angles given by their untold perspectives of the war. Such a great book. 

Meanwhile another inaccurate ✨poem✨ for Achilles is more appreciated than this 🥲 a poem for silenced women. 

Lara Engle

I admire the concept and storytelling in this book, but there's something about it that feels distant and cold. As I read, I was annoyed by how much of these women's stories revolved around the men. It was so much tragedy and mourning. The bright points were Penelope's chapters where she writes to and berates Odysseus for how long he's been away and for the absurd tales the bard keeps telling about him. I also appreciated Calliope's chapters giving us glimpses into how a muse inspires and influences her poet. Overall, a pretty good read, but another sad one.

Lovely book by Haynes, but also one that lacks enough intrigue. I found certain sections of the book to be tedious and boring (particularly Penelope's letters), but the story is profound and rich-- I just wish it had engrossed me more. 

Holly

Kaitlyn Johnson 

Cindy Lieberman

Whether it’s the front line or the clothes line, war affects everyone. Yet the stories we learn in school are primarily about the heroics and sacrifices of men. In this epic, we hear from the women and learn of THEIR heroics and many sacrifices. There are letters from Penelope to Odysseus, urging him to return to her and their son; stories of Cassandra (who can see the future but is doomed to never be believed) and all the women and girls of Troy taken as slaves; the petulant complaining and antics of the goddesses; the welcome home received by some of the Greek soldiers after their prolonged time away; and Calliope’s (Greek goddess of epic poetry) snarky responses to human prayers. Engaging and enjoyable (despite all the death), it’s message made more urgent against the backdrop of everyone fighting to defend 🇺🇦 Ukraine against the Russian incursion.

Anna

Ce livre est un pur chef d’œuvre mythologique. Il devrait figurer dans les classiques, au même titre que « L’Iliade » et « L’Odyssée ». Ce point de vue féminin est juste sublime et bouleversant. On ressent chaque horreur de cette guerre, chaque sacrifice et perte. 

Je ne pensais pas autant avoir le cœur serré à la lecture du récit mythologique de ces femmes de la guerre de Troie qui m’étaient à ce jour inconnu, ou bien seulement connu de nom, contrairement aux hommes que je connais tous. Voilà pourquoi ce livre est important, il nous révèle les figurines féminines oubliés ou mal racontée de cette guerre et nous montre le cauchemar qu’elles ont vécu.

Elle Geoghegan 

Cheri McElroy

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

“There are so many ways of telling of a war...but this is a woman’s war, just as much as it is the men’s...the pain of the women who have always been relegated to the edges of the story...”

This is the story of the women of Trojan War mythology. It’s heartbreaking and profound in places, though not as lyrical as the novel Circe. But I was moved by the storytelling and the imagination of the author. 

“This was never the story of one woman, or two. It was the story of all of them. A war does not ignore half the people whose lives it touches. So why do we?”

Certainly a powerful read, yet not intriguing enough.

illya

This book is the equivalent of Disney's Hades saying: HES A GUY!! about your fave Greek and Trojan heores. 
Okay now that I have more time let me elaborate:
This book is extremely well written. It touches on some visceral, cruel and awful themes in such a way that is both scortching hot and soothingly icy. The portrayal of such different characters, whose personality have been defined by centuries of tales and retellings, are still fresh and uniquely represented through an earthy and mystical narration. It leaves you breathless and yet so filled with light. Calliope's chapters are slap in the face, Penelope's development where she lets through her anger and disappointment as the glorified image of her husband vanishes from her heart as years go by; Helen! Helen of Sparta! Helen of Troy! Portrayed as both the cause and the victim, blameless and guilty. 

And I'm leaving a lot of more snippets behind because I don't want to give too much away. 100000% recommended to those who LOVED the song of Achilles, who are interested in the Illiad/the ancient greek tragedies, and to those who WANT to learn more about said world, but romance isn't their cup of tea and they think it's too late in the summer to start the Illiad.

A Thousand Ships

Reviews

Highlights