Title: The Silence of the Girls
Author: Pat Barker
Context: The Silence of the Girls is a historical fiction novel by Pat Barker set in ancient Turkey. The teeming world of the Greek camp is brought to vivid life by the author. Complex portraits of stories and characters familiar with mythology are presented by the author from the viewpoint of the queen Briseis all of which are generalized with newly found divulgences.
Synopsis: Since almost a decade, the ancient city of Troy was under the rule of the mighty Greek army. A bloody war was waged by the army over Helen a stolen woman. Briseis, is the another woman in the Green camp, who keeps a watch and awaits results of the war. Briseis was the queen of one of the adjoining kingdoms of the ancient city of Troy. Her husband and her brothers as well were killed and her city was sacked by the greatest warrior of Greece, Achilles. As part of a prize in the battle, she became the mistress of Achilles. She has to live a radically different kind of life but accordingly she has to adjust for the sake of survival, in the same way like many other women who were conquered and be of service to the Greek army.
A brutal Greek political leader named, Agamemnon, asks for the queen Briseis himself. The disillusioned queen finds that she is trapped between the most powerful Greeks of all. Achilles does not want to protest or fight. Gradually the Greeks have no control on the Trojan opponents. Briseis is constantly and keenly observing and unflinching coolly about the horrors of battle, daily. She realizes that now she is in an unprecedented position, observing the two men forcing the Greek warriors for a final face to face battle which will decide the fate of the people of Briseis but at large even the ancient world. In the war, Briseis stays behind the scenes. Nurses, the woman who lay out the dead, prostitutes and slaves all of them are wiped out from history.
Other works by the Author:
1982 – Union Street
1984 – Blow Your House Down
1986 – The Century’s Daughter
1988 – The Man Who Wasn’t There
Regeneration Trilogy
- 1991 – Regeneration
- 1993 – The Eye in the Door
- 1995 – The Ghost Road
1998 – Another World
2001 – Border Crossing
2003 – Double Vision
2007 – Life Class
2012 – Toby’s Room
2015 – Noonday
2018 – The Silence of the Girls