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Women of Troy #3
The Voyage Home: A Novel
From the Booker Prize-winning author of The Regeneration Trilogy comes the powerful third installment to the Women of Troy series.
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.
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.
278 pages, Kindle Edition
First published August 15, 2024
478 people are currently reading
21147 people want to read
About the author
Pat Barker
26 books2,639 followersPat Barker is an English writer known for her fiction exploring themes of memory, trauma, and survival. She gained prominence with Union Street (1982), a stark portrayal of working-class women's lives, and later achieved critical acclaim with the Regeneration Trilogy (1991–1995), a series blending history and fiction to examine the psychological impact of World War I. The final book, The Ghost Road (1995), won the Booker Prize. In recent years, she has turned to retelling classical myths from a female perspective, beginning with The Silence of the Girls (2018). Barker's work is widely recognized for its direct and unflinching storytelling.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 854 reviews
September 5, 2024
I doubt anyone wanted to love this book more than I did; I ordered a hardcover from the British Isles because I didn’t want to wait until December when I could’ve just checked it out from the library. Yet here we are, and I am sad.
This was supposed to be an exhilarating and bloody story of vengeance, one of the most famous Iliad-adjacent tales in the literary canon. I was so ready for it, having adored the first book in this trilogy that freshly retold the Iliad from Briseis’ perspective, and even enjoying the aftermath of the bloody war in the second book, though I found that sequel lacking. In that book, we were just biding our time, waiting for the winds, grieving the fallen. Surely the story of the fabulous, wrathful Clytemnestra—the mother of sacrificed Iphigenia, the sister of the much-maligned Helen, and the wife of the prideful Agamemnon—would deliver. And somehow, this is what we got.
To call this book blunt and unsubtle would be an understatement. These characters aren’t interesting, flawed people; they’re twitter posts. After the magnificently written, PTSD-suffering Achilles from the first book, I was so bored by the PTSD-suffering Agamemnon. He drinks heavily, relies on narcotics to sleep, and sees his dead daughter in the shadows. Who cares about his suffering? I don’t.
The story is meant to be a thriller, with suspense and that classic "bomb under the table" tension—characters unaware of their fate while the reader anticipates the explosion. Only the suspense never materializes. Cassandra knows, and she doesn’t care; the book needed an atmosphere of dread, something a more careful writer could have delivered.
Ritsa and Clytemnestra essentially share the same voice, despite one of them being the queen. Clytemnestra should be seething with fury, yet she comes across as resigned and bored; and somehow jealous. The dialogues are filled with awkward exchanges. Anachronistic slang that hadn’t bothered me before felt jarring here. I found the book tedious, lacking in intelligence or novelty—nothing about it felt fresh or insightful. I kept waiting for a murder to finally happen, hoping it would jolt the story into higher gears fitting for the high drama of the myth, yet it was endlessly delayed and when it finally happened, the story just petered out.
Or maybe it’s even simpler than that: I just wanted to like anyone in this book, and I did not. Bah!
This was supposed to be an exhilarating and bloody story of vengeance, one of the most famous Iliad-adjacent tales in the literary canon. I was so ready for it, having adored the first book in this trilogy that freshly retold the Iliad from Briseis’ perspective, and even enjoying the aftermath of the bloody war in the second book, though I found that sequel lacking. In that book, we were just biding our time, waiting for the winds, grieving the fallen. Surely the story of the fabulous, wrathful Clytemnestra—the mother of sacrificed Iphigenia, the sister of the much-maligned Helen, and the wife of the prideful Agamemnon—would deliver. And somehow, this is what we got.
To call this book blunt and unsubtle would be an understatement. These characters aren’t interesting, flawed people; they’re twitter posts. After the magnificently written, PTSD-suffering Achilles from the first book, I was so bored by the PTSD-suffering Agamemnon. He drinks heavily, relies on narcotics to sleep, and sees his dead daughter in the shadows. Who cares about his suffering? I don’t.
The story is meant to be a thriller, with suspense and that classic "bomb under the table" tension—characters unaware of their fate while the reader anticipates the explosion. Only the suspense never materializes. Cassandra knows, and she doesn’t care; the book needed an atmosphere of dread, something a more careful writer could have delivered.
Ritsa and Clytemnestra essentially share the same voice, despite one of them being the queen. Clytemnestra should be seething with fury, yet she comes across as resigned and bored; and somehow jealous. The dialogues are filled with awkward exchanges. Anachronistic slang that hadn’t bothered me before felt jarring here. I found the book tedious, lacking in intelligence or novelty—nothing about it felt fresh or insightful. I kept waiting for a murder to finally happen, hoping it would jolt the story into higher gears fitting for the high drama of the myth, yet it was endlessly delayed and when it finally happened, the story just petered out.
Or maybe it’s even simpler than that: I just wanted to like anyone in this book, and I did not. Bah!
June 2, 2024
The cursed house of Atreus
The final instalment (I'm guessing) in Barker's Trojan trilogy and this takes us back to Greece and into the cursed palace of Agamemnon in Mycenae where the Furies or Eumenides are waiting to renew the cycle of bloodthirsty revenge.
The story is split between a first person narrative of the enslaved Ritsa, body woman to Cassandra, and a third person narrative from the perspective of Clytemnestra, Agamemnon's wife and mother of the sacrificed Iphigenia. Again, Barker inhabits these women with imaginative force taking us from the grieving Trojan women being shipped en masse to Greece to the brooding Clytemnestra who has waited ten long years for the return of her husband.
There are always choices to be made when telling a story where we know the milestones and the endpoint and Barker offers a female perspective on the myths that are especially known to us from The Trojan Women and Andromache by Euripides and the Agamemnon, the first play from Aeschylus' Oresteia cycle. All these dramas foreground female characters but whose voices are ventriloquised by male authors creating them in a culture which uses 'female' voices to express emotions of grief, lament and loss that may be less accessible to masculine voices. Barker fills out some of these views with, especially, a modern and feminist concern for the way women may be used as pawns on the battlefield and the sense of helplessness as they are routinely raped and enslaved as the victims and spoils of war.
Nevertheless, Barker also gives us a trio of women leads who struggle to achieve some agency: Cassandra, the prophetess and daughter of Troy, Clytemnestra, and Ritsa, a created character who carves out a fate as a common woman amidst the mythic. As in the previous volumes, this straddles the past and present using modern vernacular and contemporary modes of thinking to re-access these ancient stories. There's also a scepticism here about the 'mythic': Ritsa doesn't want to believe that Cassandra has powers of prophecy from Apollo and plays down the idea of the gods as excuses for human behaviour.
As in the second volume, there are places where the pace could be tightened up. But what stands out especially for me is the superb evocation of the bloody house of Atreus, both conceptually and as a material location. This Mycenean palace is, literally, haunted by its ghosts creating a claustrophobic atmosphere than is tangible. Playing on what we already know must happen - as if we too are Cassandras - this ends at a moment of crisis.
A fitting ending, then, to a creative re-working of the Trojan stories for a modern audience.
Many thanks to Penguin for an ARC via NetGalley.
'Barbarian? I don't remember my ancestors killing and eating children.' She looked around the room. 'Honestly, how can you live in this place. Stinks of blood.'
The final instalment (I'm guessing) in Barker's Trojan trilogy and this takes us back to Greece and into the cursed palace of Agamemnon in Mycenae where the Furies or Eumenides are waiting to renew the cycle of bloodthirsty revenge.
The story is split between a first person narrative of the enslaved Ritsa, body woman to Cassandra, and a third person narrative from the perspective of Clytemnestra, Agamemnon's wife and mother of the sacrificed Iphigenia. Again, Barker inhabits these women with imaginative force taking us from the grieving Trojan women being shipped en masse to Greece to the brooding Clytemnestra who has waited ten long years for the return of her husband.
There are always choices to be made when telling a story where we know the milestones and the endpoint and Barker offers a female perspective on the myths that are especially known to us from The Trojan Women and Andromache by Euripides and the Agamemnon, the first play from Aeschylus' Oresteia cycle. All these dramas foreground female characters but whose voices are ventriloquised by male authors creating them in a culture which uses 'female' voices to express emotions of grief, lament and loss that may be less accessible to masculine voices. Barker fills out some of these views with, especially, a modern and feminist concern for the way women may be used as pawns on the battlefield and the sense of helplessness as they are routinely raped and enslaved as the victims and spoils of war.
Nevertheless, Barker also gives us a trio of women leads who struggle to achieve some agency: Cassandra, the prophetess and daughter of Troy, Clytemnestra, and Ritsa, a created character who carves out a fate as a common woman amidst the mythic. As in the previous volumes, this straddles the past and present using modern vernacular and contemporary modes of thinking to re-access these ancient stories. There's also a scepticism here about the 'mythic': Ritsa doesn't want to believe that Cassandra has powers of prophecy from Apollo and plays down the idea of the gods as excuses for human behaviour.
As in the second volume, there are places where the pace could be tightened up. But what stands out especially for me is the superb evocation of the bloody house of Atreus, both conceptually and as a material location. This Mycenean palace is, literally, haunted by its ghosts creating a claustrophobic atmosphere than is tangible. Playing on what we already know must happen - as if we too are Cassandras - this ends at a moment of crisis.
A fitting ending, then, to a creative re-working of the Trojan stories for a modern audience.
Many thanks to Penguin for an ARC via NetGalley.
September 10, 2024
BookTube channel with my awesome brother, Ed - The Brothers Gwynne
My personal BookTube channel - William Gwynne
Just finished this most recent Pat Barker release. I adored The Silence of the Girls and The Women of Troy, and I have told many people that the first of this series is one of the greatest books to have ever been written, in my opinion.
So, it would be fair to say I went into this third instalment of the series with high expectations....
The Voyage Home almost feels like a standalone. We have some characters from the previous instalments, but I would say you can read this without having dived into The Silence of the Girls (although I highly recommend it, as it is one of the BEST BOOKS EVER). For me, I was quite relieved, as The Women of Troy provided such a fitting ending for so many characters, but on the flip side it meant The Voyage Home had a lot of work to invest me in a new set of characters.
Whilst I was invested and enjoyed this read, especially with Pat Barker's wonderful prose once again being present, I feel it was a victim of my extremely high expectations. There weren't any of those moments I remember from the previous two instalments, which are still vivid in my mind despite my reading them years ago now. But, it is unfair to compare to brilliant, exceptional books, so I do know I was unfair to The Voyage Home, but I could not avoid it.
Still a good read, with the final third being crafted and put together magnificently, but I would push the previous two instalments far, far more.
4/5 STARS
My personal BookTube channel - William Gwynne
Just finished this most recent Pat Barker release. I adored The Silence of the Girls and The Women of Troy, and I have told many people that the first of this series is one of the greatest books to have ever been written, in my opinion.
So, it would be fair to say I went into this third instalment of the series with high expectations....
The Voyage Home almost feels like a standalone. We have some characters from the previous instalments, but I would say you can read this without having dived into The Silence of the Girls (although I highly recommend it, as it is one of the BEST BOOKS EVER). For me, I was quite relieved, as The Women of Troy provided such a fitting ending for so many characters, but on the flip side it meant The Voyage Home had a lot of work to invest me in a new set of characters.
Whilst I was invested and enjoyed this read, especially with Pat Barker's wonderful prose once again being present, I feel it was a victim of my extremely high expectations. There weren't any of those moments I remember from the previous two instalments, which are still vivid in my mind despite my reading them years ago now. But, it is unfair to compare to brilliant, exceptional books, so I do know I was unfair to The Voyage Home, but I could not avoid it.
Still a good read, with the final third being crafted and put together magnificently, but I would push the previous two instalments far, far more.
4/5 STARS
January 3, 2025
This is my favorite of the three Trojan War books; it is fantastic. The majority of it is told from the pov of Cassandra's slave, Ritsa. She's a grumpy, middle aged, free Trojan woman made slave by the Greeks and given to Cassandra after she marries Agamemnon—who is believably vile. We also get some of Clytemnestra's pov—Agamemnon's wife who has been planning her vengeance for the murder of her daughter (by her bigamous husband) for ten years.
This book is creepy and awesome. Ritsa is an excellent narrator. Her personal journey is compelling. I taught the Iliad and the Odyssey for many years and I know the story well. Pat Barker gives a mesmerizing take on the events. It's like a snowball causing an avalanche. Cassandra is not particularly likable, though Barker crafts her to be pitiable. The writing is beautiful and the conclusion, thanks to Ritsa's storyline, is very satisfying. Barker is an auto buy. I hope she continues this series with Clytemnestra. Oh! Elektra is especially disturbing—here's hoping she gets a book of her own. I highly recommend this series!
This book is creepy and awesome. Ritsa is an excellent narrator. Her personal journey is compelling. I taught the Iliad and the Odyssey for many years and I know the story well. Pat Barker gives a mesmerizing take on the events. It's like a snowball causing an avalanche. Cassandra is not particularly likable, though Barker crafts her to be pitiable. The writing is beautiful and the conclusion, thanks to Ritsa's storyline, is very satisfying. Barker is an auto buy. I hope she continues this series with Clytemnestra. Oh! Elektra is especially disturbing—here's hoping she gets a book of her own. I highly recommend this series!
December 3, 2024
As Margaret Atwood, Madeline Miller and other writers (like Sophocles) have shown, the story of war sounds entirely different when it’s told by women captured, waiting or grieving. That radical shift in perspective is the engine of Pat Barker’s gripping reevaluation of the Trojan War. Her multi-book project began in 2018 with “The Silence of the Girls,” continued in 2021 with “The Women of Troy” and now comes back to Mycenae in “The Voyage Home.”
The first two volumes of Barker’s series focused on Briseis, the captured queen who becomes an object of contention between Achilles and Agamemnon in “The Iliad.” In the early pages of “The Voyage Home,” we see Briseis on the shore waving goodbye to our new narrator, Ritsa. Agamemnon and his men are returning home with their spoils — Ritsa among them. Once a freewoman and a healer, Ritsa has been assigned to attend to Cassandra, a virgin priestess of Apollo captured and forcibly married to Agamemnon.
As enslaved women with different standing, Ritsa and Cassandra maintain a fascinatingly ambiguous relationship. Though the former priestess retains no real power, she still clings to the attitude of her despoiled glory, while Ritsa treats her with a mixture of deference and condescension, exasperation and pity, knowing that her own survival is linked to this pompous, unstable woman who believes she can foresee the future.
This is a novel about how women respond to unendurable trauma — the destruction of their homes, the murder of all their loved ones, the prospect of endless sexual violence. But what makes this so fresh and engaging is Barker’s ability to translate these ancient people into vernacular voices that dissolve the millennia separating us. They are not mythical beings, animated statues or marble friezes striking new poses. They’re sweating, smelly people. Agamemnon may be the most powerful man in the world, but Ritsa can see that he’s “a lethal mixture of arrogance and insecurity.” The men “lack the basic empathy to imagine what it’s like to have no say in what’s done to your body.” Some of the women are so traumatized and starved that they’ve stopped having their periods.
The tenor of Ritsa’s narration constantly scrapes away the patina of epic glory and forces us, with her humor and her candor, to consider the lived experience of these people who caused and endured constant tides of violence and degradation.
“Had I really sunk so low?” Ritsa asks. “Yes — the only possible answer. I was Cassandra’s catch-fart — well, be honest, would you want that on your headstone? No, me neither. Not that I was likely to get one — a headstone, I mean — or even a grave.” Clearly, we’re not reverently marching through a Robert Fagels translation....
To read the rest of this review, go to The Washington Post:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/books/...
The first two volumes of Barker’s series focused on Briseis, the captured queen who becomes an object of contention between Achilles and Agamemnon in “The Iliad.” In the early pages of “The Voyage Home,” we see Briseis on the shore waving goodbye to our new narrator, Ritsa. Agamemnon and his men are returning home with their spoils — Ritsa among them. Once a freewoman and a healer, Ritsa has been assigned to attend to Cassandra, a virgin priestess of Apollo captured and forcibly married to Agamemnon.
As enslaved women with different standing, Ritsa and Cassandra maintain a fascinatingly ambiguous relationship. Though the former priestess retains no real power, she still clings to the attitude of her despoiled glory, while Ritsa treats her with a mixture of deference and condescension, exasperation and pity, knowing that her own survival is linked to this pompous, unstable woman who believes she can foresee the future.
This is a novel about how women respond to unendurable trauma — the destruction of their homes, the murder of all their loved ones, the prospect of endless sexual violence. But what makes this so fresh and engaging is Barker’s ability to translate these ancient people into vernacular voices that dissolve the millennia separating us. They are not mythical beings, animated statues or marble friezes striking new poses. They’re sweating, smelly people. Agamemnon may be the most powerful man in the world, but Ritsa can see that he’s “a lethal mixture of arrogance and insecurity.” The men “lack the basic empathy to imagine what it’s like to have no say in what’s done to your body.” Some of the women are so traumatized and starved that they’ve stopped having their periods.
The tenor of Ritsa’s narration constantly scrapes away the patina of epic glory and forces us, with her humor and her candor, to consider the lived experience of these people who caused and endured constant tides of violence and degradation.
“Had I really sunk so low?” Ritsa asks. “Yes — the only possible answer. I was Cassandra’s catch-fart — well, be honest, would you want that on your headstone? No, me neither. Not that I was likely to get one — a headstone, I mean — or even a grave.” Clearly, we’re not reverently marching through a Robert Fagels translation....
To read the rest of this review, go to The Washington Post:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/books/...
Want to read
September 29, 2024I CAN’T WAIT!!!
June 4, 2025
3.5 stars
This is the third in Pat Barker’s series about the Trojan Wars, presumably a trilogy, but who knows. It focusses on the women in the situation, on both sides, but mainly on the Trojan side. For me Barker’s Regeneration trilogy is much better, but that isn’t surprising as they are some of my favourite books of all time. These are certainly worth reading though. This part of the series looks at the voyage back from Troy and the return to Greece.
The main characters are Cassandra, King Priam’s daughter and Ritsa her maid (slave). Ritsa is also a concubine to Machaon, Agamemnon’s healer. Cassandra has been given to Agamemnon as part of the spoils of war. On the Greek side there is Clytemnestra, awaiting the return of her husband Agamemnon and plotting revenge on him for sacrificing their daughter Iphigenia to the gods before he departed. The novel encompasses the time period from leaving Troy, the voyage and arriving back in Greece, continuing for some days until the climax of the anticipated events: which you will know if you are familiar with the myths.
This novel looks at the aftermath of war, for the winners and losers. Barker also makes clear that the women on both sides are often losers. There are some vivid descriptive passages and Barker uses, as she generally does some earthy language which puts across some of the hideousness of war, its brutality. Barker is good at this, she did it with the Regeneration trilogy.
As always Barker’s characterisation is good. However Agamemnon did appear rather one dimensional, unlike Achilles in the first book who had a good deal of nuance. One particular problem for me was the ending. It just didn’t seem to fit with the rest of the book and felt like an easy way out. It might possibly mean there’s a fourth book on the way, but as an ending to the three books it just felt rather feeble.
This is the third in Pat Barker’s series about the Trojan Wars, presumably a trilogy, but who knows. It focusses on the women in the situation, on both sides, but mainly on the Trojan side. For me Barker’s Regeneration trilogy is much better, but that isn’t surprising as they are some of my favourite books of all time. These are certainly worth reading though. This part of the series looks at the voyage back from Troy and the return to Greece.
The main characters are Cassandra, King Priam’s daughter and Ritsa her maid (slave). Ritsa is also a concubine to Machaon, Agamemnon’s healer. Cassandra has been given to Agamemnon as part of the spoils of war. On the Greek side there is Clytemnestra, awaiting the return of her husband Agamemnon and plotting revenge on him for sacrificing their daughter Iphigenia to the gods before he departed. The novel encompasses the time period from leaving Troy, the voyage and arriving back in Greece, continuing for some days until the climax of the anticipated events: which you will know if you are familiar with the myths.
This novel looks at the aftermath of war, for the winners and losers. Barker also makes clear that the women on both sides are often losers. There are some vivid descriptive passages and Barker uses, as she generally does some earthy language which puts across some of the hideousness of war, its brutality. Barker is good at this, she did it with the Regeneration trilogy.
As always Barker’s characterisation is good. However Agamemnon did appear rather one dimensional, unlike Achilles in the first book who had a good deal of nuance. One particular problem for me was the ending. It just didn’t seem to fit with the rest of the book and felt like an easy way out. It might possibly mean there’s a fourth book on the way, but as an ending to the three books it just felt rather feeble.
Want to read
January 22, 2023A BOOK FOCUSING ON CASSANDRA????? MY BELOVED????
COUNT. ME. IN.
COUNT. ME. IN.
July 2, 2024
Three women, all slaves in their own way.
This is told from three perspectives: Rista, once healer, now Cassandra’s maid and a slave. Cassandra, royal at birth and the high priestess of Apollo, and now Agamemnon's war bride. Finally, Clytemnestra, Agamemnon's wife at home who is grieving her daughter sacrificed so the Greeks could sail to Troy.
’But isn't that the point? Who decides who's a monster?'
"The winner.'
Ritsa’s chapters are the only ones told in first person which creates a sense of intimacy and makes this more poignant and instant.
Through others’ eyes, and with insights of her own chapters, we see Cassandra has learned long since to disguise her doubts and fears — if she had any. This makes her appear aloof, careless, and yet the glimpses into her insecurities makes her humane and her proclaimed madness seems apt.
Clytemnestra is supposed to be evil. The deviant wife. Yet, her grief and rage has a firm basis and her capacity for revenge is shown to reinforce a cycle of violence.
What might not appeal to some readers is the modernity of this retelling. It uses language more suited to 21st century dialect.
Example:
’Agamemnon's just like you?' I said.
"Why, aye, you could have a drink with him, bit of a laugh...'
Best mates with Agamemnon. Oh my god.
Do not go in expecting the Iliad.
This is a retelling in a more accessible voice, giving voice to the silenced and oppressed.
This is relatable, relevant, and definitely a step up from her two previous books!
’He had no choice. The gods required it.'
Cassandra laughed. 'The gods must have broad backs, don't you think? Anything anybody does gets blamed on them.'
Thank you to Penguin Books for providing me a physical arc in exchange for a review!
Bookstagram
This is told from three perspectives: Rista, once healer, now Cassandra’s maid and a slave. Cassandra, royal at birth and the high priestess of Apollo, and now Agamemnon's war bride. Finally, Clytemnestra, Agamemnon's wife at home who is grieving her daughter sacrificed so the Greeks could sail to Troy.
’But isn't that the point? Who decides who's a monster?'
"The winner.'
Ritsa’s chapters are the only ones told in first person which creates a sense of intimacy and makes this more poignant and instant.
Through others’ eyes, and with insights of her own chapters, we see Cassandra has learned long since to disguise her doubts and fears — if she had any. This makes her appear aloof, careless, and yet the glimpses into her insecurities makes her humane and her proclaimed madness seems apt.
Clytemnestra is supposed to be evil. The deviant wife. Yet, her grief and rage has a firm basis and her capacity for revenge is shown to reinforce a cycle of violence.
What might not appeal to some readers is the modernity of this retelling. It uses language more suited to 21st century dialect.
Example:
’Agamemnon's just like you?' I said.
"Why, aye, you could have a drink with him, bit of a laugh...'
Best mates with Agamemnon. Oh my god.
Do not go in expecting the Iliad.
This is a retelling in a more accessible voice, giving voice to the silenced and oppressed.
This is relatable, relevant, and definitely a step up from her two previous books!
’He had no choice. The gods required it.'
Cassandra laughed. 'The gods must have broad backs, don't you think? Anything anybody does gets blamed on them.'
Thank you to Penguin Books for providing me a physical arc in exchange for a review!
Bookstagram
January 6, 2025
In this final book of the trilogy Barker continues to focus on the forgotten, or more accurately, the ignored women of Greek mythology. And just like the first two books she firmly bases this book on the gritty and brutal reality of what it was like for the women who lived and died during and after the war. However, this book focuses in on two women.
With the sack of Troy, Agamemnon returns to his kingdom of Mycenae which Clytemnestra, his wife and Queen, has ruled in his absence. With him he brings his war prize, and new bride, Cassandra. Cassandra has been gifted and cursed by the god Apollo. The gift, she can see the future. The curse, nobody believes her prophesies. So, Cassandra has already seen her and Agamemnon’s murder at the hands of Clytemnestra, but nobody believes her. Essentially Cassandra knows that her death is coming, but so long as Agamemnon dies as well, she is content.
Most of the story is told through the eyes of Cassandra’s slave, Ritsa, a character who never appears in mythology, an invention of Barker’s to help with the narration. Barker switches between first and third person as she also switches perspective between Ritsa, Cassandra and Clytemnestra.
This third novel is powerfully emotional. Vengeance and revenge pulsate from both Clytemnestra and Cassandra, their hatred of Agamemnon equal but for very different reasons. This hatred rises from the pages like a bonfire.
Even though the reader knows what is going to happen, Barker weaves a brilliant tale, focusing on the characters, and the ghostly Mycenean palace.
With the sack of Troy, Agamemnon returns to his kingdom of Mycenae which Clytemnestra, his wife and Queen, has ruled in his absence. With him he brings his war prize, and new bride, Cassandra. Cassandra has been gifted and cursed by the god Apollo. The gift, she can see the future. The curse, nobody believes her prophesies. So, Cassandra has already seen her and Agamemnon’s murder at the hands of Clytemnestra, but nobody believes her. Essentially Cassandra knows that her death is coming, but so long as Agamemnon dies as well, she is content.
Most of the story is told through the eyes of Cassandra’s slave, Ritsa, a character who never appears in mythology, an invention of Barker’s to help with the narration. Barker switches between first and third person as she also switches perspective between Ritsa, Cassandra and Clytemnestra.
This third novel is powerfully emotional. Vengeance and revenge pulsate from both Clytemnestra and Cassandra, their hatred of Agamemnon equal but for very different reasons. This hatred rises from the pages like a bonfire.
Even though the reader knows what is going to happen, Barker weaves a brilliant tale, focusing on the characters, and the ghostly Mycenean palace.
April 1, 2025
Big fan of this trilogy!
The Greeks are on their way home from Troy with their captive women and slaves in tow. One of whom is Cassandra, a character I’ve always loved.
We switch POVs between Cassandra, Clytemnestra and Cassandra’s companion (sort of) Ritsa.
If you know your Greek myth then the story won’t be new to you, but I found it a refreshing take to combine these POVs when retelling it.
With all the atrocities and tragedy we come to expect I was gripped to the pages. I’m always a sucker for a book about mythology.
The Greeks are on their way home from Troy with their captive women and slaves in tow. One of whom is Cassandra, a character I’ve always loved.
We switch POVs between Cassandra, Clytemnestra and Cassandra’s companion (sort of) Ritsa.
If you know your Greek myth then the story won’t be new to you, but I found it a refreshing take to combine these POVs when retelling it.
With all the atrocities and tragedy we come to expect I was gripped to the pages. I’m always a sucker for a book about mythology.
August 26, 2024
ARC received in exchange for an honest review
The Voyage Home continues Pat Barker's stories of the women of Troy, as Cassandra and Ritsa return alongside Agememnon to Mycenae where he must face the consequences of his actions at the star of the war.
There's always going to be issues when retelling Cassandra's story, as it's hard to build up suspense for an inevitable event that even the characters know is going to happen. However I think Pat Barker does a good job of making the reader still wonder if Cassandra's prophecy will eventually come to pass. However, I still think this sufferers with the same issues I had with the previous installments in that the multi povs often feel like one voice. I was often confused if the chapters were from Ritsa, Cassandra and even Clytemnestra (even though her chapters are not first person). This led to me being frequently thrown out of the story, and this slow build up that Barker was creating leading up to out 'main event' was often lost. The women also didn't feel distinct enough, with their development feeling a little thin on the ground because the story was stretched between the three. If we'd just had Ritsa or Cassandra I think this would have worked better. Especially when I compare this to recent novels that I've read and enjoyed that retell the same story and and have purposely centered one female voice.
I also didn't love that the writing often used colloquial language, again an issue I picked up in previous books in the series. It just felt a bit jarring. As did the slightly weird paranormal vibes the story was trying to give off. It didn't need it. The House of Atreus, with all its history, doesn't need ghost handprints to create a menacing atmosphere. It manages that all on its own by recounting the horrific events of its past. Especially when said ghost prints don't lead to anything plot wise.
However, even with all that, I do think overall this was a fast and compelling read that puts the women who fall in the shadow of powerful men back into the foreground.
The Voyage Home continues Pat Barker's stories of the women of Troy, as Cassandra and Ritsa return alongside Agememnon to Mycenae where he must face the consequences of his actions at the star of the war.
There's always going to be issues when retelling Cassandra's story, as it's hard to build up suspense for an inevitable event that even the characters know is going to happen. However I think Pat Barker does a good job of making the reader still wonder if Cassandra's prophecy will eventually come to pass. However, I still think this sufferers with the same issues I had with the previous installments in that the multi povs often feel like one voice. I was often confused if the chapters were from Ritsa, Cassandra and even Clytemnestra (even though her chapters are not first person). This led to me being frequently thrown out of the story, and this slow build up that Barker was creating leading up to out 'main event' was often lost. The women also didn't feel distinct enough, with their development feeling a little thin on the ground because the story was stretched between the three. If we'd just had Ritsa or Cassandra I think this would have worked better. Especially when I compare this to recent novels that I've read and enjoyed that retell the same story and and have purposely centered one female voice.
I also didn't love that the writing often used colloquial language, again an issue I picked up in previous books in the series. It just felt a bit jarring. As did the slightly weird paranormal vibes the story was trying to give off. It didn't need it. The House of Atreus, with all its history, doesn't need ghost handprints to create a menacing atmosphere. It manages that all on its own by recounting the horrific events of its past. Especially when said ghost prints don't lead to anything plot wise.
However, even with all that, I do think overall this was a fast and compelling read that puts the women who fall in the shadow of powerful men back into the foreground.
March 9, 2025
This is the third book in Pat Barker’s Women of Troy series. The Greeks have won the Trojan War and are on their way back home to Mycenae, accompanied by the women they have captured as slaves. Barker continues giving voices to the women. The main female characters include Cassandra, daughter of King Priam of Troy, Ritsa, a slave and friend of Briseis (narrator of book one, The Silence of the Girls), Clytemnestra, Agamemnon’s wife, and Electra, his fifteen-year-old daughter. It is a story of revenge.
The survivors have suffered both physically and psychologically. Cassandra bears the additional burden of a prophetess who will never be believed (due to a curse put upon her by Apollo). She knows what will happen but can do nothing to prevent it. Clytemnestra harbors extreme anger at Agamemnon for his sacrifice of their daughter, Iphegenia. Anyone familiar with Greek mythology knows this is not going to end well
It is a well-written and memorable exploration of grief, trauma, survival, and the human cost of war. Barker has a gift for giving her characters psychological depth, even while telling an epic saga. It is obviously an argument against the glorification of war. As a warning, it contains graphic descriptions of rape and other violent acts. I recommend reading the first two books before embarking on this one. It is also beneficial to be familiar with The Iliad. Pat Barker is a brilliant storyteller, who skillfully incorporates contemporary themes into ancient myths.
The survivors have suffered both physically and psychologically. Cassandra bears the additional burden of a prophetess who will never be believed (due to a curse put upon her by Apollo). She knows what will happen but can do nothing to prevent it. Clytemnestra harbors extreme anger at Agamemnon for his sacrifice of their daughter, Iphegenia. Anyone familiar with Greek mythology knows this is not going to end well
It is a well-written and memorable exploration of grief, trauma, survival, and the human cost of war. Barker has a gift for giving her characters psychological depth, even while telling an epic saga. It is obviously an argument against the glorification of war. As a warning, it contains graphic descriptions of rape and other violent acts. I recommend reading the first two books before embarking on this one. It is also beneficial to be familiar with The Iliad. Pat Barker is a brilliant storyteller, who skillfully incorporates contemporary themes into ancient myths.
November 11, 2024
Thanks to @prhaudio for allowing me to read this retelling featuring Cassandra and Queen Clytemnestra, wife of Agamemnon.
I've read the first two books in Ms. Barker's Women of Troy series and greatly enjoyed both of them. This book was told from alternating POVs, my favorite of which came from Ritsa, a servant of Cassandra's. I loved Ritsa and was far more interested in her storyline than anyone else's. It was very clever to tell the story of Cassandra's demise and Clytemnestra's fury through the eyes of a Trojan woman carried back to Greece as a trophy of war.
Having read other retellings of Clytemnestra, I was familiar with her story and didn't feel like I discovered anything new here, but Cassandra was a very interesting character. She was infuriating, tragic, and complex. I wanted to know more about her and Ritsa, and I felt like the book ended just as their relationship was evolving.
The writing is sharp and I could visualize every scene vividly. The audiobook narration was excellent.
I've read the first two books in Ms. Barker's Women of Troy series and greatly enjoyed both of them. This book was told from alternating POVs, my favorite of which came from Ritsa, a servant of Cassandra's. I loved Ritsa and was far more interested in her storyline than anyone else's. It was very clever to tell the story of Cassandra's demise and Clytemnestra's fury through the eyes of a Trojan woman carried back to Greece as a trophy of war.
Having read other retellings of Clytemnestra, I was familiar with her story and didn't feel like I discovered anything new here, but Cassandra was a very interesting character. She was infuriating, tragic, and complex. I wanted to know more about her and Ritsa, and I felt like the book ended just as their relationship was evolving.
The writing is sharp and I could visualize every scene vividly. The audiobook narration was excellent.
November 10, 2025
The depth I found in Silence of the Girls tapers off in the third (final?) installment of the Women of Troy series. Maybe because this shifts the focus from Briseis, who I was attached to, or because it is repetitive to a reader who already has the insights from the previous two novels. This novel centers on Cassandra, the seer who is cursed to never be believed through her servant, Ritsa's view. This is the primary engaging part of the book (weirdly, I can't figure out why Clytemnestra's portion was so lackluster for me).
I mean, I still have over a dozen highlights, and I would still have read this because I like Pat Barker's writing very much, but the core message of this series is muddled in this book. I would still recommend this to readers of the series, especially to those who are newer to Greek mythology and interested in unique perspectives. 2.5 stars rounded up.
Thank you to Netgalley and Doubleday Books for a copy of the eARC in exchange for an honest review!
I mean, I still have over a dozen highlights, and I would still have read this because I like Pat Barker's writing very much, but the core message of this series is muddled in this book. I would still recommend this to readers of the series, especially to those who are newer to Greek mythology and interested in unique perspectives. 2.5 stars rounded up.
Thank you to Netgalley and Doubleday Books for a copy of the eARC in exchange for an honest review!
November 20, 2024
I don't know if I was in the mood for this book but it wasn't, in my opinion, as great as the other ones. Doesn't mean that it was bad, just comparing the other I think this was my least favorite.
It was very interesting to see Cassandra putting her strings to get her revenge on Agammenon. That's what's really good about the writing here. Cassandra has prophetic dreams and all that mystical mustery about her persona, but does she really see the future or she just reads people really well and know how to make them do what she wants? The way things unfolds are very complex and keeps you on your toes.
Lastly the dynamic between the women in this one was really great. I don't think Barker ever misses the way women bond over tragedy.
It was very interesting to see Cassandra putting her strings to get her revenge on Agammenon. That's what's really good about the writing here. Cassandra has prophetic dreams and all that mystical mustery about her persona, but does she really see the future or she just reads people really well and know how to make them do what she wants? The way things unfolds are very complex and keeps you on your toes.
Lastly the dynamic between the women in this one was really great. I don't think Barker ever misses the way women bond over tragedy.
September 22, 2025
Mooie afsluiting van de trilogie over het trieste lot van de Trojaanse vrouwen. Dit deel vond ik intenser dan de andere 2 maar tegelijkertijd minder invoelbaar. Cassandra en Clytaemnestra spreken ook minder tot de verbeelding dan Briseïs. Desondanks, mooi verhaal, goed geschreven.
July 26, 2024
Oh how I LOVE Pat Barker’s books, so so much, so imagine my pure delight when the wonderful team at Viking books sent me a proof copy of the The Voyage Home!! I don’t think I could ever thank them enough. As soon as this one landed through my door I set about reading it, because how could I wait to read a book that focusses on both Cassandra and Clytemnestra?! I couldn’t, I wouldn’t. As with the previous two books in this series, we get the stories about the forgotten woman of the past, often of those that are deemed to be villainous in some way or another. I went into this one thinking Cassandra would be my favourite character but the sorrow, despair and rage I felt for Clytemnestra just put her up on a whole new level for me. If you like the first two books in this series then you’re going to love this one just as much. It’s definitely an easy 5 star read for me.
September 10, 2024
The final offering from Pat Barker and a surprisingly strong conclusion to the wronged Trojan Women in Aeschylus’s Oresteia. Hallelujah, Barker’s writing has been redeemed. The second installment seemed to invoke a lot of anger and dismay.
Agamemnon’s fateful return home to his vengeful wife, the horrifying voyeurism of Prophetess Cassandra and the waifs of dead/ hagridden children swirling around in the palace. All the ingredients to a terrific retelling.
I enjoyed the cutting, blunt tone of Barker’s writing.
Although there is an obvious misuse of colloquialisms through the book, she manages to claw back the story and with humorous language. “ Catch-fart” comes to mind. Watching Agamemnon the “ butcher of Troy” walk into his portended doom was weirdly kind of satisfying.
Agamemnon’s fateful return home to his vengeful wife, the horrifying voyeurism of Prophetess Cassandra and the waifs of dead/ hagridden children swirling around in the palace. All the ingredients to a terrific retelling.
I enjoyed the cutting, blunt tone of Barker’s writing.
Although there is an obvious misuse of colloquialisms through the book, she manages to claw back the story and with humorous language. “ Catch-fart” comes to mind. Watching Agamemnon the “ butcher of Troy” walk into his portended doom was weirdly kind of satisfying.
March 11, 2025
why are they british?
June 8, 2025
Elke keer als ik een boek van Barker lees denk ik: waarom heb ik bij het lezen van al die Griekse mythen nooit zo doorgehad dat die vanuit het perspectief van mannen zijn geschreven? Briseis die verliefd wordt op Achilles terwijl hij haar verkracht en haar vader en broers heeft gedood? Lol. Lees dit soort verhalen vanuit het perspectief van de vrouw en het is allemaal nog gruwelijker. Deze trilogie van Barker over en vanuit verschillende Trojaanse vrouwen is prachtig en een broodnodige toevoeging op de duizenden hervertellingen die er al bestaan ♥️
August 10, 2024
Bookshelves are now replete with retellings of Greek myths, none more so than the story told in the Orestia – of the death of Agamemnon at the hands of his wife Clymnestra. Just recently, this tale has been retold in Colm Tobin’s excellent House of Names, and in Jennifer Saint’s Elektra. Pat Barker comes to it as the third volume of her series based on the Trojan wars which started with The Silence of the Girls and continues with The Women of Troy. These books, as is clear from their titles, have focussed on the women in these tales, mainly silent characters or prizes of war.
In The Voyage Home, Barker begins where the previous book left off – the Troy is destroyed and the Greek army is packing up to leave. Agamemnon has take Cassandra, the daughter of his enemy Priam and prophetess, as his wife. Cassandra has already foretold that both she and Agamemnon will be killed but her curse is that no one believes her. Waiting for Agamemnon at home is Clymnestra, who has not only been ruling in his ten year absence but still blames him for killing their daughter Iphegenia in order to appease the gods. In the middle of all of this is Cassandra’s servant Ritsa, another one of the spoils of war. Ritsa a woman with knowledge and gifts of healing, forced into a subservient role and while compassionate, also looking for a better life.
Barker once again delivers a startlingly insightful and rich tale within the confines of a story that has been retold thousands of times. In this case she does so by focussing on women who had some agency which is taken from them and how the consequences of clawing that agency back. Clymnestra ruled in Agamemnon’s absence but is cast back into the role of spurned wife on his return. Cassandra, once a priestess of Apollo her finds herself in the role of concubine. In Cassandra, Barker returns to one of the key themes of this series, the impact of war on women:
Agamemnon rode with Cassandra at his side… she was King Priam’s daughter, once a princess, no Agamemnon’s concubine, obliged to lie in his bed and bear his children. What better symbol could there be of Troy’s defeat in war. In war, men carve messages on women’s bodies, messages intended to be read by other men.
There is more of this story to tell – the cycle of violence that next leads to the revenge of Orestes and Electra on their mother. And Barker may well return to these stories. But this feels like a natural stopping place for her exploration of the Trojan war - from the tragedy and sacrifice of a young girl which started it, to the use and abuse of female slaves during the war, through to the consequence of those actions. In a field replete with retellings of these stories, Barker’s approach to the material – revenrential but not slavish and using the narrative to draw out universal themes - has always stood out and The Voyage Home is no exception.
In The Voyage Home, Barker begins where the previous book left off – the Troy is destroyed and the Greek army is packing up to leave. Agamemnon has take Cassandra, the daughter of his enemy Priam and prophetess, as his wife. Cassandra has already foretold that both she and Agamemnon will be killed but her curse is that no one believes her. Waiting for Agamemnon at home is Clymnestra, who has not only been ruling in his ten year absence but still blames him for killing their daughter Iphegenia in order to appease the gods. In the middle of all of this is Cassandra’s servant Ritsa, another one of the spoils of war. Ritsa a woman with knowledge and gifts of healing, forced into a subservient role and while compassionate, also looking for a better life.
Barker once again delivers a startlingly insightful and rich tale within the confines of a story that has been retold thousands of times. In this case she does so by focussing on women who had some agency which is taken from them and how the consequences of clawing that agency back. Clymnestra ruled in Agamemnon’s absence but is cast back into the role of spurned wife on his return. Cassandra, once a priestess of Apollo her finds herself in the role of concubine. In Cassandra, Barker returns to one of the key themes of this series, the impact of war on women:
Agamemnon rode with Cassandra at his side… she was King Priam’s daughter, once a princess, no Agamemnon’s concubine, obliged to lie in his bed and bear his children. What better symbol could there be of Troy’s defeat in war. In war, men carve messages on women’s bodies, messages intended to be read by other men.
There is more of this story to tell – the cycle of violence that next leads to the revenge of Orestes and Electra on their mother. And Barker may well return to these stories. But this feels like a natural stopping place for her exploration of the Trojan war - from the tragedy and sacrifice of a young girl which started it, to the use and abuse of female slaves during the war, through to the consequence of those actions. In a field replete with retellings of these stories, Barker’s approach to the material – revenrential but not slavish and using the narrative to draw out universal themes - has always stood out and The Voyage Home is no exception.
December 4, 2024
The Voyage Home by Pat Barker is a grim, harrowing finale to her Trojan War trilogy, a tale steeped in grief, fury, and the profound complexities of survival. Returning to the fractured ruins of Mycenaean life, Barker pivots to the dual perspectives of Ritsa, a healer turned slave, and Clytemnestra, a queen consumed by vengeance. This narrative shift brings a fresh lens to a story of homecoming haunted by blood, betrayal, and the cost of war.
Clytemnestra’s simmering rage is the beating heart of this novel. Her grief over Iphigenia's sacrifice feels visceral, but it lacks the feral intensity of other retellings like Costanza Casati’s Clytemnestra. Still, Barker crafts a compelling portrait of a woman trapped between power and pain, balancing her defiant resilience against the frailty of her position. Ritsa’s voice adds a grounded, sardonic edge that highlights the chasm between those with perceived authority and those stripped of it entirely. The dynamic between her and Cassandra—a seer rendered powerless yet insufferably haughty—is fraught, fascinating, and very human.
While some threads could be more fleshed out (Clytemnestra’s wrath deserved a deeper dive), the rawness of Barker’s writing and the unflinching portrayal of trauma carry the narrative. This isn’t a triumphant tale of vengeance but a meditation on the scars left by violence, even on its victors. If the murder of Agamemnon is a climax, it’s a hollow, muted one, much like the wreckage war leaves in its wake.
The Voyage Home isn’t perfect—Cassandra’s characterization feels overly sharp, and the pacing occasionally falters—but it’s a poignant, unsettling reminder that in war and its aftermath, no one truly wins. Barker’s trilogy remains a masterclass in reframing myth through the eyes of the silenced, making this finale a must-read for lovers of feminist retellings.
Clytemnestra’s simmering rage is the beating heart of this novel. Her grief over Iphigenia's sacrifice feels visceral, but it lacks the feral intensity of other retellings like Costanza Casati’s Clytemnestra. Still, Barker crafts a compelling portrait of a woman trapped between power and pain, balancing her defiant resilience against the frailty of her position. Ritsa’s voice adds a grounded, sardonic edge that highlights the chasm between those with perceived authority and those stripped of it entirely. The dynamic between her and Cassandra—a seer rendered powerless yet insufferably haughty—is fraught, fascinating, and very human.
While some threads could be more fleshed out (Clytemnestra’s wrath deserved a deeper dive), the rawness of Barker’s writing and the unflinching portrayal of trauma carry the narrative. This isn’t a triumphant tale of vengeance but a meditation on the scars left by violence, even on its victors. If the murder of Agamemnon is a climax, it’s a hollow, muted one, much like the wreckage war leaves in its wake.
The Voyage Home isn’t perfect—Cassandra’s characterization feels overly sharp, and the pacing occasionally falters—but it’s a poignant, unsettling reminder that in war and its aftermath, no one truly wins. Barker’s trilogy remains a masterclass in reframing myth through the eyes of the silenced, making this finale a must-read for lovers of feminist retellings.
October 23, 2024
I recalled the previous Barker trilogy as good but perhaps I was young(er) and foolish. The writing style in this is so off-putting and the characters are impossible to invest in. I just don’t buy that Clytemnestra and all the other women would be saying ‘f***’ all the time and it removes from any of the Greek mythological element.
Want to read
March 16, 2023A book focusing on the story of my namesake?!?
YES PLEASE.....!!!!!
YES PLEASE.....!!!!!
January 27, 2025
women do be crazy sometimes
October 8, 2024
I will never not love a Pat Barker Greek myth retelling.
June 4, 2025
Third Women of Troy book from Pat Barker. This one starts with Cassandra, a daughter of Priam, and Ritsa, who is now her maid, as they leave Troy and head to Agamemnon’s palace and his wife Clytemnestra; she wants justice/revenge for the death of their daughter at Agamemnon’s hand. I knew the story from previous books, but still an enjoyable read.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
July 6, 2024
Excellent myth retold - don’t need to have read the other two - but all worth reading
September 17, 2024
Why are the other Greek myth girlies even bothering at this point, when Pat Barker exists?
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