The Voyage Home

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 Cassandras frenzies and the horrors to come. Meanwhile, awaiting the fleets return is Queen Clytemnestra, vengeful wife of Agamemnon. Heart-shattered by her husbands 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 Agamemnons death, one thing is certain: this long-awaited homecoming will change everyones 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