The Voyage Home
A Novel
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4.8 • 16 Ratings
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- $12.99
Publisher Description
One of Kirkus Reviews' Best Fiction Books of the Year • One of the Financial Times' Best Fiction Books of the Year • One of The Times' Best Novels of the Year • AN INSTANT UK BESTSELLER
“Barker’s vision of a world shaped by violence, a key theme in all her fiction, is equal to the tragic grandeur of ancient myth....More brilliant work from one of world literature’s greatest writers.” —Kirkus Reviews *starred review*
From the Booker Prize-winning author of The Regeneration Trilogy comes the powerful third installment to the Women of Troy series. In The Voyage Home, Pat Barker skillfully reimagines Greek mythology, chronicling a perilous journey undertaken by the enslaved healer Ritsa and her cruel mistress Cassandra.
I never saw Cassandra as a victim. I saw a woman as focused on a single aim as any raptor stooping to its prey; but then, I had more opportunities to observe her ruthlessness than most. I was in her power, you see. I was her slave.
Pat Barker has crafted the latest in a brilliant reimagining of Greek mythology, and The Voyage Home is the work of a writer at the height of her powers. In this third outing, she follows the young Ritsa and the unpredictable Cassandra on their perilous return journey to Mycenae. Cassandra has acquired the powers of prophecy from the kiss of Apollo, but the very same god has taken away the people’s belief in her abilities. Though she warns of the carnage that awaits the Greek warrior king Agamemnon—who numbs himself with alcohol on the storm-plagued trip home—her shipmates disregard her.
While Cassandra’s prophecies fall on deaf ears, Ritsa instead remains focused on surviving once they make land. When a mysterious young girl begins to shadow them, and Agamemnon’s cruelty takes a new turn, Ritsa must find a safe place for Cassandra, whose mood alternates between cruelty and frenzy. But it’s the ongoing ire between Queen Clytemnestra and Agamemnon that could prove fatal for everyone.
In The Voyage Home, Barker elevates myth and legend and asks us to examine the stories we hold dear through a feminist lens, and in doing so she has crafted a tale that upholds her legacy as one of our finest contemporary novelists.
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
Booker Prize winner Pat Barker turns her unflinching feminist lens to the aftermath of the Trojan War in the third installment of her Women of Troy series. Sharp-witted Trojan slave Ritsa and her mistress, Cassandra, embark on a perilous journey home with the Greek king Agamemnon, whose cruelty casts a long shadow over their fate. Haunted by the ghost of his sacrificed daughter and oblivious to Cassandra’s chilling prophecies of doom, Agamemnon lurches toward a reckoning with his vengeful wife, Clytemnestra. Barker’s signature prose is visceral and haunting, balancing brutal depictions of violence and subjugation with moments of quiet resilience. The shifting perspectives of Ritsa and Clytemnestra bring fresh immediacy to ancient myths, while the themes of power, survival, and the cyclical nature of vengeance elevate the voices of women silenced by history. A masterful blend of myth and humanity, The Voyage Home is a fierce and unforgettable addition to Barker’s remarkable body of work.
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.
