The Voyage Home
The instant Sunday Times bestseller. A new Greek myth retelling from the author of The Women of Troy
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4.2 • 24 Ratings
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- £5.99
Publisher Description
The exhilarating follow-up to Pat Barker's The Women of Troy and The Silence of the Girls
'Brilliant, masterful . . . Barker strips away the glittering armour of myth' Guardian
After ten blood-filled years, the war is over. Troy lies in smoking ruins as the victorious Greeks fill their ships with the spoils of battle.
Alongside the treasures looted are the many Trojan women captured by the Greeks – among them the legendary prophetess Cassandra, and her watchful maid, Ritsa. Enslaved as concubine – war-wife – to King Agamemnon, Cassandra is plagued by visions of his death – and her own – while Ritsa is forced to bear witness to both Cassandra’s frenzies and the horrors to come.
Meanwhile, awaiting the fleet’s return is Queen Clytemnestra, vengeful wife of Agamemnon. Heart-shattered by her husband’s choice to sacrifice their eldest daughter to the gods in exchange for a fair wind to Troy, she has spent this long decade plotting retribution, in a palace haunted by child-ghosts.
As one wife journeys toward the other, united by the vision of Agamemnon’s death, one thing is certain: this long-awaited homecoming will change everyone’s fates forever.
'The queen of literary historical fiction, Barker is an unflinching guide for a trip across ancient Greece' National Geographic
'Astonishingly fresh . . . Pat Barker is one of the finest novelists working today' Alice Winn, author of In Memoriam
SHORTLISTED FOR THE ANGLO-HELLENIC LEAGUE RUNCIMAN AWARD 2025
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
Pat Barker has gained broad praise and a committed readership for her work retelling Greek myths from female characters’ perspectives—explore The Women of Troy and The Silence of the Girls immediately if you’ve yet to. Here, she trains her sights on the stories of Cassandra—wartime concubine to King Agamemnon suffering visions of their deaths—and Queen Clytemnestra, perhaps the definition of a long-suffering wife. Barker again writes these extraordinary stories with a steeliness—she wants us to understand the full horrors and injustices of these women’s existence so ensures her writing does not lean on flowery language. The result is something truly powerful, exploring themes including prophecy, power and revenge.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Barker (The Silence of the Girls) recounts the aftermath of the Trojan War in this tense third entry in her Women of Troy series. With the city in ruins, victorious King Agamemnon and his Greek army sail home to Mycenae. On the ship, King Priam's daughter Cassandra, once a virgin priestess and now a concubine, endures Agamemnon's abuse. Apollo gave Cassandra the gift of prophesy but made sure no one would believe her. Now, on approach to Agamemnon's royal palace, she foresees two dead bodies in the courtyard: hers and the king's. Agamemnon also has a troubled mind—he sacrificed his own daughter, Iphigenia, to assure victory at Troy, and now he sees her ghost on the ship. Meanwhile, at the palace, Queen Clytemnestra plots to murder Agamemnon for killing Iphigenia. But the queen has her own enemies—her son Orestes and daughter Electra. The narrator, Ritsa, is another beleaguered woman. A Trojan survivor enslaved by Cassandra, she's resigned to a life of subjugation. Barker suffuses the wrenching narrative with the women's simmering contempt for the men who rule their world. Readers will relish this fierce feminist retelling.
