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

by Pat Barker

3.36 of 5 stars 11 ratings • 1 review • 35 shelved
Book cover for The Silence of the Girls

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Shorlisted for the Women's Prize for Fiction and the Costa Novel Award

Booker-winning novelist Pat Barker imagines the untold story of the women at the heart of history's greatest epic


'Magnificent... You are in the hands of a writer at the height of her powers' Evening Standard


'Chilling, powerful, audacious... A searing twist on The Iliad. Amid the recent slew of rewritings of the great Greek myths and classics, Barker's stands out for its forcefulness of purpose and earthy compassion' The Times

'A stunning return to form' Observer

There was a woman at the heart of the Trojan war whose voice has been silent - till now...

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?

Discover the greatest Greek myth of all - retold by the witness history forgot.

'Make[s] you reflect on the cultural underpinnings of misogyny, the women throughout history who have been told by men to forget their trauma... You are in the hands of a writer at the height of her powers' Evening Standard

Praise for Pat Barker:

'Barker delves unflinchingly into the enduring mysteries of human motivation' Sunday Telegraph

'She is not only a fine chronicler of war but of human nature' Independent

'Barker is a writer of crispness and clarity and an unflinching seeker of the germ of what it means to be human' Herald

'You go to her for plain truths, a driving storyline and a clear eye, steadily facing the history of our world' Guardian

  • ISBN10 0241338077
  • ISBN13 9780241338070
  • Publish Date 30 August 2018
  • Publish Status Out of Print
  • Out of Print 22 March 2021
  • Publish Country GB
  • Publisher Penguin Books Ltd
  • Imprint Hamish Hamilton Ltd
  • Format Hardcover
  • Pages 336
  • Language English