The Silence of the Girls

After Achilles sacks Lyrnessus and kills her husband and brothers, Queen Briseis is taken to the Greek camp as his enslaved concubine. Through her eyes, the quarrel between Achilles and Agamemnon becomes part of a wider story about the captive women whose labour, suffering and survival lie behind the heroic narrative of the Iliad.

As Troy approaches its fall, Briseis navigates violence, rivalry and uncertain alliances while observing the men whose pursuit of honour determines the fate of thousands. The novel reframes the closing phase of the Trojan War around enslavement, loss and the struggle to retain a voice.