Name: The Silence of the Girls
ISBN: 9780241983218

Pat Barker

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

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.

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 

Really interesting to read after Song of Achilles

Excited to keep reading books about Greek mythology 

rebecca

Really interesting to read after Song of Achilles

Excited to keep reading books about Greek mythology 

Skipped halfway through the book, I couldn’t care less about the story any longer. Felt a bit of a stretch, the switching to Achilles’/Patroclus’ POV didn’t make sense to me. The modern/British way of telling the story fell odd to me, why would ancient Greek warriors say stuff like ‘lads’, ‘bugger off’, and ‘bloody’ anyway? I love Briseis as a character, but this retelling just felt a little too dragged on to me. This is an extremely biased review, but I much prefer TSOA over this.

“What will they make of us, the people of those unimaginably distant times? One thing I do know: they won’t want the brutal reality of conquest and slavery. They won’t want to be told about the massacres of men and boys, the enslavement of women and girls. They won’t want to know we were living in a rape camp. No, they’ll go for something altogether softer. A love story, perhaps? I just hope they manage to work out who the lovers were.” — Well, yeah, I’d rather have it be a fantastical, epic love story about gay warriors instead. It is a much preferred narrative, and this is not me being anti-feminist either, I just don’t want to read about the suffering of my fellow women as if I don’t already know. And let’s be real, it doesn’t really offer a refreshing feminist view anyway, with how depressing and defeated the main character is.

mikki

Skipped halfway through the book, I couldn’t care less about the story any longer. Felt a bit of a stretch, the switching to Achilles’/Patroclus’ POV didn’t make sense to me. The modern/British way of telling the story fell odd to me, why would ancient Greek warriors say stuff like ‘lads’, ‘bugger off’, and ‘bloody’ anyway? I love Briseis as a character, but this retelling just felt a little too dragged on to me. This is an extremely biased review, but I much prefer TSOA over this.

“What will they make of us, the people of those unimaginably distant times? One thing I do know: they won’t want the brutal reality of conquest and slavery. They won’t want to be told about the massacres of men and boys, the enslavement of women and girls. They won’t want to know we were living in a rape camp. No, they’ll go for something altogether softer. A love story, perhaps? I just hope they manage to work out who the lovers were.” — Well, yeah, I’d rather have it be a fantastical, epic love story about gay warriors instead. It is a much preferred narrative, and this is not me being anti-feminist either, I just don’t want to read about the suffering of my fellow women as if I don’t already know. And let’s be real, it doesn’t really offer a refreshing feminist view anyway, with how depressing and defeated the main character is.

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.

The great city of Troy is under siege as Greek heroes Achilles and Agamemnon wage bloody war over a stolen woman. In the Greek camp, another woman is watching and waiting- Briseis. She was a queen of this land until Achilles sacked her city and murdered her husband and sons. Now she is Achilles' concubine- a prize of battle. Briseis is just one among thousands of women backstage in this war - the slaves and prostitutes, the nurses, the women who lay out the dead - all of them voiceless in history. But, though no one knows it yet, they are just ten weeks away from the death of Achilles and the Fall of Troy, an end to this long and bitter conflict. Briseis will see it all - and she will bear witness.

A Novel

carolina

a nice and easy book to read, the writing is not the most beautiful but it's alright, the pace is fast so i never got bored while reading.

ephe

2,5
i’m going to keep this review short, while i liked the book, i thought it was really slow paced, which, i don’t usually mind, but it made the book a bit boring for me. overall i enjoyed this book, i thought the concept was interesting, telling the story from briseis’ point of view, it was interesting reading her thoughts, knowing about her rage, her grief and her sorrow. the ending fell kind of flat though… after the second part of the book that felt endless, the last part was - sorry for my words - a pain in the ass, it was long and for what?
i didn’t understand the author’s choice to include achilles’ point of view in the starting from the second part, i thought that was a really poor choice on barker’s part, as the concept of the book is to tell the story from the women’s point of views. maybe the author made that choice to add more depth to the story… i don’t know.

Francesca Starecheski

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

I hope I don't get roasted for this review, but The Silence of The Girls didn't offer the revolutionary, feminist view that I was expecting. It's a lot of abuse thrown at women under the pretense of "that's war", but I just expected and wanted a bit more from the narrative. What a great job here at painting Achilles in a more brutal viewpoint (compared to depictions of Achilles in, say, Song of Achilles), but there's nothing absolutely crucial here that you can't infer or get from other equally grotesque yet profoundly powerful retellings.  

It follows that same old slightly vague narrative that all Greek retellings seem to have — everything feels so assumed, yet vague, like a riddle. On top of that, I was removed every time a character spoke, it didn't feel like how I imagined these people to speak, but maybe it's just that I haven't been exposed to many 'humanisations' of these men. They do sound an awful lot like average run-of-the-mill British men, though, and it was just slightly distracting.

I thought the story was still relatively interesting in the way it was delivered and structured, but I was left wanting and expecting more from a book that is so highly applauded and recommended.

Holly

I hope I don't get roasted for this review, but The Silence of The Girls didn't offer the revolutionary, feminist view that I was expecting. It's a lot of abuse thrown at women under the pretense of "that's war", but I just expected and wanted a bit more from the narrative. What a great job here at painting Achilles in a more brutal viewpoint (compared to depictions of Achilles in, say, Song of Achilles), but there's nothing absolutely crucial here that you can't infer or get from other equally grotesque yet profoundly powerful retellings.  

It follows that same old slightly vague narrative that all Greek retellings seem to have — everything feels so assumed, yet vague, like a riddle. On top of that, I was removed every time a character spoke, it didn't feel like how I imagined these people to speak, but maybe it's just that I haven't been exposed to many 'humanisations' of these men. They do sound an awful lot like average run-of-the-mill British men, though, and it was just slightly distracting.

I thought the story was still relatively interesting in the way it was delivered and structured, but I was left wanting and expecting more from a book that is so highly applauded and recommended.

anne caroline

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.

Conhecemos da Ilíada o nome de heróis masculinos, como Aquiles, Ulisses, Páris, Agamémnon ou Heitor - mas este romance, narrado por Briseida, rainha de Lirnesso (cidade vizinha de Troia e dos seus campos de batalha), troféu e concubina de Aquiles após a tomada da cidade pelos Gregos, é a história das mulheres do poema de Homero, figuras frequentemente esquecidas ou desvalorizadas: as escravas, as prostitutas, as enfermeiras, as que cuidam dos mortos e dos vivos, as que observam as batalhas e primeiro sofrem os seus horrores. Reenviando-nos às grandes páginas da literatura da Antiguidade, O Silêncio das Mulheres é um convite a escutar as vozes silenciadas pela História e pelo poder - e um livro belíssimo sobre a realidade brutal da guerra e da escravidão, e também do amor e suas controvérsias.

O Silêncio Das Mulheres

"O que pensarão de nós, o povo daqueles tempos inimaginavelmente distantes? De uma coisa eu sei: não vão querer a realidade brutal da conquista e da escravidão. Não vão querer ser informados sobre os massacres de homens e meninos, a escravidão de mulheres e garotas. Não vão querer saber que vivíamos em um campo de estupro. Não, vão preferir algo muito mais suave. Uma história de amor, talvez? Só espero que consigam entender quem eram os amantes."

Pensei muito sobre como no começo pensei "mas é só isso, Briseida vai apenas contar a história de Aquiles, mas e a história dela, das outras mulheres troianas?" Mas aí entendi.

"Olhando para trás, parecia que eu tentava escapar não apenas do acampamento, mas da história de Aquiles; e que eu falhara. Porque, não se engane, essa é a história dele, a raiva dele, a dor dele, a história dele. Eu estava com raiva, eu estava sofrendo, mas de alguma forma isso não importava. Lá estava eu, mais uma vez, esperando que Aquiles decidisse quando seria a hora de ir para a cama  ainda aprisionada, ainda grudada à sua história e, ainda assim, sem ter nenhum papel de verdade a desempenhar nela."

Isabela Miranda Araujo

"O que pensarão de nós, o povo daqueles tempos inimaginavelmente distantes? De uma coisa eu sei: não vão querer a realidade brutal da conquista e da escravidão. Não vão querer ser informados sobre os massacres de homens e meninos, a escravidão de mulheres e garotas. Não vão querer saber que vivíamos em um campo de estupro. Não, vão preferir algo muito mais suave. Uma história de amor, talvez? Só espero que consigam entender quem eram os amantes."

Pensei muito sobre como no começo pensei "mas é só isso, Briseida vai apenas contar a história de Aquiles, mas e a história dela, das outras mulheres troianas?" Mas aí entendi.

Pois é esse o silêncio das mulheres.

"Olhando para trás, parecia que eu tentava escapar não apenas do acampamento, mas da história de Aquiles; e que eu falhara. Porque, não se engane, essa é a história dele, a raiva dele, a dor dele, a história dele. Eu estava com raiva, eu estava sofrendo, mas de alguma forma isso não importava. Lá estava eu, mais uma vez, esperando que Aquiles decidisse quando seria a hora de ir para a cama  ainda aprisionada, ainda grudada à sua história e, ainda assim, sem ter nenhum papel de verdade a desempenhar nela."

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

hera

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

Quite surprised by the pull quotes describing this as “mesmerising”, “taut” and not least “Homeric in its brilliance” (The Economist). I feel like I should have loved it but actually found it quite boring??

I do like the premise (Trojan wars retold by its women) but found it hard to connect emotionally with any of the characters and I counterintuitively ended up with more sympathy for Achilles. 

Occasionally the perspective switches from Briseis to Achilles - this could have worked well if the entire book was structured in this way - The Affair did this really well on TV - but didn’t find it added much here.  

Style-wise didn’t love the modern casual dialogue which jarred rather than humanise this mythical cast and in general think more could have been said with less.

I did race through it and think the sense of place is very palpable (and pungent!) - it’s very readable but just, personally, struggled to connect with it. 

Sarah Christine Gill

Quite surprised by the pull quotes describing this as “mesmerising”, “taut” and not least “Homeric in its brilliance” (The Economist). I feel like I should have loved it but actually found it quite boring??

I do like the premise (Trojan wars retold by its women) but found it hard to connect emotionally with any of the characters and I counterintuitively ended up with more sympathy for Achilles. 

Occasionally the perspective switches from Briseis to Achilles - this could have worked well if the entire book was structured in this way - The Affair did this really well on TV - but didn’t find it added much here.  

Style-wise didn’t love the modern casual dialogue which jarred rather than humanise this mythical cast and in general think more could have been said with less.

I did race through it and think the sense of place is very palpable (and pungent!) - it’s very readable but just, personally, struggled to connect with it. 

Elda Mengisto

"Great Achilles. Brilliant Achilles, shining Achilles, godlike Achilles...How the epithets pile up. We never called him any of those things; we called him 'the butcher'".

This is how Briseis' story begins, with her city being plundered and then taken to slavery. While I've heard of the Illiad and its influence on Western literature, I actually haven't thought too much about nor read it. Therefore, I didn't come into the book wanting to know another perspective of the Trojan War, but wanting to see how one woman survived through it all.

The book is mostly in Briseis' point of view; however, starting from the second part, it starts getting into Achilles' perspective through the third person, where we get into his fears of demise and plans for revenge. While I think it's an interesting approach to take considering what the Illiad is about, it also detracts from the perspective which we want to know. Nevertheless, it comes in handy for things not explained, such as with Achilles seemingly suckling Briseis in one scene and his attachment to the ocean.

As for Briseis, I initially found her aloof--not surprising considering her situation as a slave for the Greeks. This doesn't mean I didn't enjoy her observant nature--one of the earliest scenes where she does this was on the rooftop with the other women, and notes how Arianna "threw herself down, her white robe fluttering round her as she fell--like a singed moth" (15) This was the beginning, however of little pieces of resistance which Barker wants to emphasize in the tale. It was enough to get the point, but not excessive enough to slam it through.

The writing style is filled with narration with relatively less dialogue than I would've liked, which was different from I was used to. However, I got accustomed to what Barker sought to describe--the brutal, tragic aspects of classical warfare, which still resonates today. Amongst the interactions and conflict between the Trojans and Greeks, this particularly stood out to me:

"There they were: battle-hardened fighters every one, listening to a slave sing a Trojian lullaby to her Greek baby. And suddenly I understood something--glimpsed, rather; I don't think I understood it till much later. I thought: '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. We'll be in their dreams--and in their worst nightmares too." (266)

And that's what the gist of the book was all about--survival and being able to tell one's own story. (7.5/10)

Gisela Ayala 

Brilantní převyprávění části eposu o trojské válce z pohledu Achillovy otrokyně Bríseovny - příběh Illiady, jak jsme ho nikdy předtím neslyšeli. V desátem roce trojské války Řekové vyplenili město Lyrnéssa, muže a chlapce pobili, ženy a dívky odvlekli do zajetí. Sám Achilles, nejudatnější bojovník, si vybral nejkrásnější ženu Bríseovnu za svou konkubínu. Tato mimořádná žena je oporou pro stovky žen, které žily v zajetí tábora řecké armády jako otrokyně a konkubíny, vydané zcela napospas zdivočelým řeckým bojovníkům. A jejíma očima můžeme vidět hrůzy a nesmyslnost této nekonečné války, neúctu k životu, krutost a surovost bojovníků na obou válčících stránách.

A dívky mlčely

eve 

krasne napsána kniha. ukazuje jak ženy, vlastně dívky, videly trojskou válku a jak v ni žily. a taky další převyprávění příběhu statečného achillea. ach ten achilleus, jak já o nem rada ctu. jak obdivuji jeho lasku a s nechutí hledím na jeho krutost. to me totiz u všech lidi, fiktivních či reálných, bolí nejvíc; jak mohou tak urputně milovat a tak neúnavně ublizovat.

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!

The Silence of the Girls Shortlisted for the Women's Prize for Fiction 2019

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