Women Of Troy

If you plan on reading this, it would be best to read Pat Barker’s previous novel, The Silence of the Girls, as it sets the stage for Women of Troy. Both novels are based on the epic of The Iliad, as seen from the captured Trojan women’s point of view. Women of Troy is heavy on characterization, and you need to know your Greeks and Trojans in order to keep everyone straight. Women begins with the arrival of the Trojan horse, and concentrates on Briseis, a former queen of a neighboring kingdom of Troy that was sacked by Achilles. Now his son Pyrrhus is the feared Greek warrior, who kills Priam, King of Troy, setting off a whole ethical debate. I had a hard time finishing this novel; it was a bit too heavy on characterization and focus on the terrible treatment of Trojan women by the Greeks during the war for my taste.