PENGUIN The Silence of the Girls: From the Booker prize-winning author of Regeneration

Such a startling wonderful read.

Eine Geschichte über einen Krieg kann wohl nur grausam sein. Insoweit hätte mein Geschichtslehrer gesagt: "Nur für starke Nerven!" Lesenswert ist, wie die Autorin herausarbeitet, welche eigentlich sehr lächerlichen Gründe hinter dem ganzen Gemetzel stehen: Kindsköpfe, die wie kleine Jungs handeln, die sich im Sandkasten das Spielzeug wegnehmen wollen. Gerade heute ein sehr wichtiges Buch. Beim aktuellen Krieg in Europa dürfte es im Grunde kaum anders sein.

10/10 writing & well described emotions

You have probably never heard of her, or if so only because you possess an exemplary memory and can recall the brief mentions made of her in Homer’s Iliad. I speak of Queen Briseis, who Homer dismissed as a mere pawn in the quarrel between Agamemnon and Achilles; used by each in their power struggle. She certainly never attained the notoriety of Helen, the Greek queen kidnapped and held captive by the Trojans in the city of Troy. The Greeks, while constantly attacking the besieged city, still found time to plunder and destroy other surrounding Trojan cities. Briseis was just one of hundreds of women that would be captured and enslaved by the \warrior Achilles and his men Barker uses Briseis as the ‘voice’ for all these women to sharply alter the perspective of how one views the Trojan War. It is her version of their capture and enslavement, and in particular her forced life as a bed slave/concubine. It is a “dark” story as those about war tend to be, and you should be aware that narrative – dialogue if you will, is kept to a minimum, and I think the telling is better because of it. This is a powerful and very well written tale that was totally engaging. I found it difficult to set aside and when I did, was anxious to return to its pages.

Gripping, wonderful, well written Love it

“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’.” Such a good book, well written and never boring. I liked the way it was written and how it focused more on the Trojan war than The Song of Achilles did. The only negative thing I have to say is that it focused way to little on the women which the story was supposed to be about, or at least what I thought it was supposed about. I got the impression that this was going to show more deeply how the slave girls was treated and on a certain level there was but only though Briseis eyes. This book is about the main character Briseis and her relationship with Achilles as his bed-slave. This doesn’t necessarily make the book worse but I just find it strange that it’s supposed to be about the slave girls but are equally or even more about Achilles.