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The Silence of the Girls

A retelling of the classic Greek myth, Troy, from the Booker prize-winning author of Regeneration

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The Silence of the Girls

By: Pat Barker
Narrated by: Kristin Atherton, Michael Fox
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Penguin presents the audiobook edition of The Silence of the Girls by Pat Barker, read by Kristin Atherton and Michael Fox.

A GUARDIAN BEST BOOK OF THE 21ST CENTURY

From the Booker Prize-winning author of Regeneration

Shortlisted for the Women's Prize for Fiction, the Costa Novel Award and the International DUBLIN Literary 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?

 Ancient Fantasy Fiction Historical Fiction Magic Women's Fiction Science Fiction Thought-Provoking Greek Mythology Ancient Greece War
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Critic reviews

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... Chilling, powerful, audacious
A stunning return to form
Angry, thoughtful, sad, deeply humane and compulsively readable, The Silence of the Girls shows that 36 years after her first novel was published, Barker is a writer at the peak of her powers
Its magnificent final section can't help but make 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
An assured triumph
An important, powerful, memorable book that invites us to look differently not only at The Iliad but at our own ways of telling stories about the past and the present, and at how anger and hatred play out in our societies
She gives a voice to the voiceless...The Silence of the Girls is a book that will be read in generations to come
An impressive feat of literary revisionism that should be on the Man Booker longlist... This is a story about the very real cost of wars waged by men... Barker makes us re-think history
Giving voice to the voiceless, this is a gripping feat of imagination that succeeds in being relevant today
The most important novel based on The Iliad so far this century
All stars
Most relevant
I thoroughly enjoyed this book having had only the flimsiest knowledge of the story of Helen and Troy . And it is an original idea to tell it from the viewpoint of the women.
The narration was very good and I was gripped through out .

Excellent.

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while i enjoyed the book, there is something very offputting about the authors attitudes to womens bodies demonstrated within its pages.
the main character expresses incredulity on a few ocassions that a fat woman and a thin woman could possibly be friends. shes goes in to some detail to decribe "two women so wholely different" to each other but really the difference simply comes down to their differing appearances and potentially appetites.
these passages stand out for their fat shaming and potentially demonstrate the authors own problems with body image.
very dissapointing in what could otherwise be referred to a feminist retelling.
additionally the multiple english accents are distracting...while we have gotten used to a well spoken english accent as a kind of "default' or non-accent in theatre, adding in near comical regional accents to demonstrate those of a lower class is both distracting to all listeners and Im sure insulting to people from those regions.

interesting and fresh angle on a familiar story

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I really enjoyed this new viewpoint, sometimes hard to listen to the brutality, but certainly added a human angle to the stories.

Brilliant and brutal story

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Loved Kristin Atherton’s narration so much, but I found the northern-cockney-Irish accents to discern characters distracting

Especially didn’t like the way Michael Fox performed Patroclus - that harsh blunted voice does not correlate with his character at all

What was with Patroclus’ voice?!

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What a wonderful take on a well known story. Beautifully read. I really enjoyed the gritty reality of this tale, and could visualise how it must have been for the women of Troy. Highly recommend this book.

Simply marvellous

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