Retold through the eyes of Briseis, wife of King Mynes of Lyrnessus, Pat Barker’s The Silence of the Girls addresses the experiences of noble Trojan women enslaved by the Greek army during the Trojan War. Set in the final months before Troy falls, this first-person narrative sheds light on the stories long overshadowed by iconic battles between Greek and Trojan men. The novel continues Barker’s fictional exploration of the lives of working-class women, grappling with themes such as misogyny, revenge, guilt, and honor.
Pat Barker is a nearly pure novelist: she writes no short stories, no poetry, but, beginning with her first novel, Union Street (1982), immediately declared herself as a major novelist. In the followi...
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Pat(ricia) Barker