Name: El silencio de las mujeres
Rating: 3.86734693877551 (343 reviews)
ISBN: 9788417860042

Pat Barker

Carlos Jiménez Arribas

El silencio de las mujeres

Elad Schulman

annika

Emma Jones

Natalie 

ame 

But perhaps no kindness was possible between owner and slave, only varying degrees of brutality? I looked across the room at Ismene and thought: Yes, you’re right, my turn now.

Men carve meaning into women's faces; messages addressed to other men.

Isn't that love's highest aim? Not the interchange of two free minds, but a single, fused identity?

he tries to pray, but prayer never comes easily to him - he's his mother's son, he knows too much about the gods

Sometimes at night I lie awake and quarrel with the voices in my head.

cedar winslow

grief's only ever as deep as the love it's replaced

thetis would be a very interesting character to get perspective on

She was an angry woman, his mother, angry with the gods who’s condemned her to a mortals marriage bed

Aren B.

“…Though the sea loves nobody and can never be trusted. I was immediately aware of a new desire, to be part of it, to dissolve into it: the sea that feels nothing and can never be hurt.”

Rose Donovan

“We’re going to survive - our songs, our stories. They’ll never be able to forget us. Decades after the last man who fought at Troy is dead, their sons will remember the songs their Trojan mothers sang to them.”

Julia Rutgers

That morning, I found out what it was like to have divided loyalties. I didn't dare pray, because I didn't know what to pray for.

A GUARDIAN BEST BOOK OF THE 21ST CENTURY From the Booker Prize-winning author of Regeneration Shortlisted for the Women's Prize for Fiction and the Costa Novel Award There was a woman at the heart of the Trojan war whose voice has been silent - till now. Discover the greatest Greek myth of all - retold by the witness that history forgot... 'Magnificent. You are in the hands of a writer at the height of her powers' Evening Standard 'Chilling, powerful, audacious' The Times Briseis was a queen until her city was destroyed. Now she is slave to Achilles, the man who butchered her husband and brothers. Trapped in a world defined by men, can she survive to become the author of her own story?

Shortlisted for the Women's Prize for Fiction 2019

The Silence of the Girls

Will be thinking about this one for a long time 

Adele Etheridge Woodson

I left this book feeling that now, in this time and place (Canada, April 2025) it is something that everyone should read. That in these uncertain times we as a society should read this story and remember what we once did each other and how it is our responsibility to not repeat it 

Abbi Brown 

A Washington Post Notable Book One of the Best Books of the Year: NPR, The Economist, Financial Times Shortlisted for the Costa Novel Award Finalist for the Women's Prize for Fiction Here is the story of the Iliad as we've never heard it before: in the words of Briseis, Trojan queen and captive of Achilles. Given only a few words in Homer's epic and largely erased by history, she is nonetheless a pivotal figure in the Trojan War. In these pages she comes fully to life: wry, watchful, forging connections among her fellow female prisoners even as she is caught between Greece's two most powerful warriors. Her story pulls back the veil on the thousands of women who lived behind the scenes of the Greek army camp--concubines, nurses, prostitutes, the women who lay out the dead--as gods and mortals spar, and as a legendary war hurtles toward its inevitable conclusion. Brilliantly written, filled with moments of terror and beauty, The Silence of the Girls gives voice to an extraordinary woman--and makes an ancient story new again.

Loved the ending explanation of why this retelling is different than the others. The dynamics between slaves and owners, between opposing fighters, and a person in the present and the past, is so interesting and deeply interrogated. 

Emily McMeans

haitchex

lala

*I read the book in English but in the following i’ll be reviewing the book in Indonesian*

*Saya membaca buku ini dalam Bahasa Inggris namun selanjutnya saya akan mengulas buku ini dalam Bahasa Indonesia*

Novel ini adalah penceritaan ulang dari The Iliad dari perspektif Briseis, ‘budak perempuan’nya Achilles setelah jatuhnya Lyrnessus. Meskipun diceritakan dari sudut pandang perempuan kurang banyak narasi feminis di buku ini, nggak seperti Penelopiad. Tapi secara umum novel ini adalah penceritaan ulang yang baik dari Iliad. Saya lebih suka ini daripada The Song of Achilles. Disayangkan aja pembaca kurang bisa lihat kemarahan atau kesedihan Briseis sebagai perempuan yang terdampak perang. Cerita dimulai dari jatuhnya Lyrnessus sampai jatuhnya Troya, yang entah kenapa mengesankan adanya siklus cerita di novel ini.

Buku ini terdiri dari 3 bagian, bagian pertama dengan narasi orang pertama dari Briseis, sedangkan bagian kedua dan ketiga dengan selang-seling antara narasi orang pertama Briseis dan narasi orang ketiga dari Achilles/Patroclus. Perubahan ini sekilas terasa tiba-tiba, tapi cukup mudah untuk menyesuaikannya. Buku ini dapat menjelaskan kerumitan karakter Achilles, bahkan terkadang terdengar terlalu berpusat ke Achilles, alih-alih menceritakan kisah Briseis. Ketika Briseis baru sampai di kamp prajurit Yunani, seseorang berkata padanya untuk melupakan kehidupan lamanya di Lyrnessus dan bahwa hidupnya sekarang adalah menjadi budak perempuan di kamp; mungkin sebab itu pembaca kurang banyak melihat cerita Briseis sebagai perempuan yang bukan budak.

Francesca Starecheski

I have never known a silent woman, only women silenced. What a privilege to hear them sing.

Andrew John Kinney

3.8, rounded up. Not my favorite from Pat Barker - her Regeneration Trilogy was so much more engaging, full of details that frequently had me googling things like "women munitions workers" or looking at biographies of Sassoon, et al. Nonetheless, this book moves along nicely to it's well-known conclusion; this is, after all, The Iliad, albeit from the perspective of Trojan women, slaves of the conquering Greeks. Interestingly, the only godlike creature allowed to enter Barker's narrative is Thetis, Achilles' mother, whereas in the original, Athena is introduced in the first page or two, grabbing Achilles by the hair, and other gods intervene periodically. Nonetheless, very readable.

When her city falls to the Greeks, Briseis's old life is shattered. She is transformed from queen to captive, from free woman to slave, awarded to the god-like warrior Achilles as a prize of war. And she's not alone

characters lacked depth, dialogue and narration felt uncomfortable at times. was not the feminism story I was expecting. 

Iona Adams

I’m always a sucker for greek mythology, but this one didn’t hit as hard as madeline millers books, very interesting perespective, also very sad

Gisela Ayala 

Elisa Bieg

This book is INCREDIBLE. Even more so, I think, as audiobook — as both narrators do an amazing job at interpreting the various characters (with a tiny exception, perhaps, of hearing an occasional Irish accent on a random Greek soldier; but as they are few and far between, not so bothersome as to affect the overall rating.)

I am not generally a huge fan of retellings; I tend to be skeptical of them, and largely avoid them. The exception is when it comes to retellings of Greek and Roman myths, which is something I have loved and absolutely devoured since I was a child.

Retellings of the Iliad and Odyssey, so beloved despite the crappy way they are often taught, are something I search for and look forward to, and this was no exception. If you’re familiar with the Iliad and/or have read The Song of Achilles, you know this is a brutal story. The Silence of the Girls is even more brutal, being told mostly from the viewpoint of a slave, and mostly stripped of the romantic notions associated with classic heroes and their feats. 
This is a raw look at war and its consequences; at slavery, abuse and murder in the name of a cause that becomes ridiculous and remote when the fighting is actually happening, and the suffering is being inflicted on survivors in so many, painful ways. 

What exactly, you might wonder, is so incredible about this book, then? It sounds horrifying! It is, at times. And I had to take breaks from it sometimes while listening.
But the voice of the main narrator and the way she described her life before and during the Trojan war is an eye-opener; her commentary on the treatment of women, the way people would be reduced to objects, and the many ways a perceived slight is often used as an excuse for hate, make this oddly, incredibly, timelessly relevant.

I’d recommend it wholeheartedly, but with a caveat: be aware that there is murder, sexual violence, abuse, and a number of other things that might not make this a good pick for you.

If however you want to brave it, I’ll tell you that this is in a tie with Kingdom of Copper (a completely different kind of book) for my favorite of 2019. (And if you know how much I love the Daevabad series, you have an idea).

I’m giving it 5 STARS without hesitation, and though I own the audiobook, I plan on also getting the hardcover, because this is truly a keeper.

lalitha

maybe i’ll write a real review when i’ve finally healed from this book and am in the headspace to do so. for now all i can say is don’t read it when you’re eating your favorite food because it will forever be ruined for you.

Eva Bailey

I'll pretty much read any Trojan War retelling but this was great. I loved Briseis as the protagonist and the perspective of the women and children slaves in the Greek camps, taken from sacked Trojan cities. Just found out the sequel is coming out this year and I can't wait!

El silencio de las mujeres

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