The Voyage Home

(Paperback)

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The exhilarating follow-up to Pat Barker's The Women of Troy and The Silence of the Girls 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.

Reviews

Brilliant, masterful, strikingly accomplished . . . few come close to matching the sharp perspicacity and profound humanity of Pat Barker . . . this bloody tale has reverberated down the ages. With her characteristic blend of brusque wisdom and piercing compassion, Barker remakes it for our times * Guardian *
Stirring and colourful . . . Barker has a genius for world-building. Ritsa is our viewpoint into an ancient civilisation brought carefully to life * Financial Times *
A remarkable series of novels . . . Pat Barkers Trojan War books are a visceral experience, made all the more affecting for being told from the perspective of the women involved rather than the warriors and gods were used to * Irish Independent *
Rich and electrifying . . . The Voyage Homes storytelling is focused, propulsive and firmly contemporary, plotting a gripping route through Homers source material to expose the ripple effects of male violence and destruction * i *
A gritty Greek Game of Thrones . . . Agamemnons fateful return home reads like a blockbuster in the colourful third instalment of Barkers women-centred Trojan wars series * Observer *
A novelist matchless in her imaginative and informed response to war * Times Literary Supplement *
The Voyage Home brings forgotten female characters into sharp psychological focus. It is astonishingly fresh and modern, bristling with anger, and breezily quick to read. Pat Barker is one of the finest novelists working today -- Alice Winn
In her thrilling retelling of the stories of Cassandra and Clytemnestra, Barker conjures up a world stained by the grief of mothers and daughters. Agamemnons palace is the stuff of nightmares, a world of suspicion and fear, plagued by the ghosts of innocents -- Paula Hawkins
A tale for our time, wonderfully written . . . The Voyage Home lays out the contingency of power: how fickle it is, how readily it ditches its host and moves elsewhere. It lays out both the banality of evil, and the grace that appears in the lives of everyday people * The Conversation *
A provocative, inspiring novel * The Spectator *
The queen of literary historical fiction, Barker is an unflinching guide for a trip across ancient Greece * National Geographic *
Viscerally satisfying, chilling and triumphant . . . No one does it quite like [Pat Barker] does * Marie Claire *
Thank goodness Pat Barker writes sequences, as one book is never enough. The tortuous grief of mothers and daughters is the story of every war, and her retelling of the aftermath of the Trojan War grips our heart and haunts our dreams -- Sarah Brown

Author Bio

Pat Barker was born in Yorkshire and began her literary career in her late thirties, when she took a short writing course taught by Angela Carter. She has published sixteen novels, including her masterful Regeneration Trilogy which includes the Booker Prize-winning The Ghost Road. The Silence of the Girls was shortlisted for the Women's Prize for Fiction and won an Independent Bookshop Award 2019. The Women of Troy was a number one Sunday Times bestseller. The Voyage Home continues the series.