A Thousand Ships
by Natalie Haynes
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NATIONAL BESTSELLERAn NPR Best Book of the Year
"Gorgeous.... With her trademark passion, wit, and fierce feminism, Natalie Haynes gives much-needed voice to the silenced women of the Trojan War."—Madeline Miller, author of Circe
Shortlisted for the Women's Prize for Fiction, a gorgeous retelling of the Trojan War from the perspectives of the many women involved in its causes and consequences—for fans of Madeline Miller.
This is the women's war, just as much as it is the men's. They show more have waited long enough for their turn . . .
This was never the story of one woman, or two. It was the story of them all . . .
In the middle of the night, a woman wakes to find her beloved city engulfed in flames. Ten seemingly endless years of conflict between the Greeks and the Trojans are over. Troy has fallen.
From the Trojan women whose fates now lie in the hands of the Greeks, to the Amazon princess who fought Achilles on their behalf, to Penelope awaiting the return of Odysseus, to the three goddesses whose feud started it all, these are the stories of the women whose lives, loves, and rivalries were forever altered by this long and tragic war.
A woman's epic, powerfully imbued with new life, A Thousand Ships puts the women, girls and goddesses at the center of the Western world's great tale ever told.
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“But this is the women’s war, just as much as it is the men’s, and the poet will look upon their pain–the pain of the women who have always been relegated to the edges of the story, victims of men, survivors of men, slaves of men–and he will tell it, or he will tell nothing at all. They have waited long enough for their turn.”
A Thousand Ships by Natalie Haynes is an eloquently penned retelling of the Trojan War from the perspective of the women whose lives were impacted by the war.
The novel begins with Calliope, the Muse of Epic Poetry, lending her song to the poet who is writing another epic but here the story of the Trojan War is told from the perspectives of women – the goddesses, nymphs, princesses, queens and slaves show more . We hear the voices of women from both sides - stories of grief, loss , death and devastation, deceptions and betrayals , victory and defeat. We learn of the aftermath of the war from women waiting for husbands returning in victory as well as the Trojan women who huddle together awaiting their fate after defeat.
I found the story of the Goddesses fighting over the golden apple quite amusing. The perspectives of Cassandra and Hecabe were very moving. Creusa’s account of her search for her husband and Oenone’s story were heartbreaking.
Penelope’s voice is presented in epistolary format through letters written to her husband Odysseus while she waits for his return.
“Waiting is the cruellest thing I have ever endured. Like bereavement, but with no certainty.”
Though it was entertaining and varied in tone from the grief and sorrowful stories of the other women, I felt that the emphasis was more on Odysseus and his exploits and wished that there would have been more about Penelope’s life in Ithaca. Her final segment is a letter/prayer to Goddess Athene after Odysseus finally returns to Ithaca.
With an engaging narrative, fluid prose, multiple perspectives beautifully executed by the author, this is a book I would definitely recommend to those who enjoy retellings of Greek mythology. I was invested from the very first chapter and not for a moment did I feel my interest wavering. I thoroughly enjoyed this book and look forward to reading more of the author’s work in the future. I would definitely recommend this book to fans of Madeline Miller’s Circe.
“And I have sung of the women, the women in the shadows. I have sung of the forgotten, the ignored, the untold. I have picked up the old stories and I have shaken them until the hidden women appear in plain sight. I have celebrated them in song because they have waited long enough. Just as I promised him: this was never the story of one woman, or two. It was the story of all of them. A war does not ignore half the people whose lives it touches. So why do we?” show less
A Thousand Ships by Natalie Haynes is an eloquently penned retelling of the Trojan War from the perspective of the women whose lives were impacted by the war.
The novel begins with Calliope, the Muse of Epic Poetry, lending her song to the poet who is writing another epic but here the story of the Trojan War is told from the perspectives of women – the goddesses, nymphs, princesses, queens and slaves show more . We hear the voices of women from both sides - stories of grief, loss , death and devastation, deceptions and betrayals , victory and defeat. We learn of the aftermath of the war from women waiting for husbands returning in victory as well as the Trojan women who huddle together awaiting their fate after defeat.
I found the story of the Goddesses fighting over the golden apple quite amusing. The perspectives of Cassandra and Hecabe were very moving. Creusa’s account of her search for her husband and Oenone’s story were heartbreaking.
Penelope’s voice is presented in epistolary format through letters written to her husband Odysseus while she waits for his return.
“Waiting is the cruellest thing I have ever endured. Like bereavement, but with no certainty.”
Though it was entertaining and varied in tone from the grief and sorrowful stories of the other women, I felt that the emphasis was more on Odysseus and his exploits and wished that there would have been more about Penelope’s life in Ithaca. Her final segment is a letter/prayer to Goddess Athene after Odysseus finally returns to Ithaca.
With an engaging narrative, fluid prose, multiple perspectives beautifully executed by the author, this is a book I would definitely recommend to those who enjoy retellings of Greek mythology. I was invested from the very first chapter and not for a moment did I feel my interest wavering. I thoroughly enjoyed this book and look forward to reading more of the author’s work in the future. I would definitely recommend this book to fans of Madeline Miller’s Circe.
“And I have sung of the women, the women in the shadows. I have sung of the forgotten, the ignored, the untold. I have picked up the old stories and I have shaken them until the hidden women appear in plain sight. I have celebrated them in song because they have waited long enough. Just as I promised him: this was never the story of one woman, or two. It was the story of all of them. A war does not ignore half the people whose lives it touches. So why do we?” show less
This is just fabulous! Taking the idea that in a war the women as just as involved as the men and while they may be less overtly heroic, they also suffer. In fact hey probably suffer more in some ways, as the dead can no longer have injury inflicted upon them by the victors. Unlike Pat Barker's Silence of ther Women, this doesn;t take a single voice, although there are recurring voices, instead ot tries to tell the stories of the many many women, on all sides, that get involved. Stretching form the cause of the war in the first place through the war and on to Odysseus finally arriving home, the women ahve their tales told. At times it is horrific, but told in a very matter of fact manner. Poor Cassandra who sees every misfortune before show more it happens and yet is not believed. At others there is great humour. The gods behave like toddlers who want the shiny apple and the cause of the war somehow gets lost. Calliope getting annoyed with the poet writing the tale and demanding the muse sing for him is just brilliantly pitched. Penelope writes letters to her husband that get increasingly exasperated with his failure to return home, and yet with the exasperation there's a sense of a lost youth and life together that they should have had. Her final passage is very moving; no-one returns from war unchanged, be they man or woman.
It really is a cast of thousands and they are all women. That some of them barely mention more than a line in the ancient literature doesn;t make their voice any less worth hearing.
I listened to this, as read by ther author, and very well done it was too. show less
It really is a cast of thousands and they are all women. That some of them barely mention more than a line in the ancient literature doesn;t make their voice any less worth hearing.
I listened to this, as read by ther author, and very well done it was too. show less
A very enjoyable look at the Trojan War and surrounding events as seen through the eyes of the female characters. Some parts don't work as well as others, but Haynes' stroppy muse and her increasingly frustrated Penelope are highlights, and there's an incredibly touching scene between Cassandra and Clytemnestra near the end.
I'd also like to recommend Haynes's podcast, Natalie Haynes Stands Up for the Classics. Her episode on The Iliad is, in addition to being a good primer for A Thousand Ships, very funny (spoiler: she really doesn't like Agamemnon. Haynes, like Clytemnestra, will never forgive him for what he did to Iphigenia.)
I'd also like to recommend Haynes's podcast, Natalie Haynes Stands Up for the Classics. Her episode on The Iliad is, in addition to being a good primer for A Thousand Ships, very funny (spoiler: she really doesn't like Agamemnon. Haynes, like Clytemnestra, will never forgive him for what he did to Iphigenia.)
This is not as satisfying as Pat Barker's The Women of Troy or The Silence of the Girls. It's not a normal novel that tells a story, it's more interconnected biographies of the gods and warriors who are truly heartless and narcissistic and chattel women. The most complete story is that of Penelope told in her letters to Odysseus. If I could do it all over, I'd read this one first to have a firmer foundation for Barker's. One thing that kept pulling me up short, I listened to the audiobook read by Hayes and she pronounced Calliope with the emphasis on the first rather than the second syllable. That was weird.
If you loved the Trojan War novels Circe and Song of Achilles, if you are a connoisseur of Greek myths - here's your next must-read. I fell in love with The Iliad in junior high (thanks forever, Miss Liegy!) but never imagined that the entire world of Greek mythology would continue to grow as I grew up. This historical novel, so wry and humorous with its modern take on the imagined lives of the ancients, gets under the skin of the epics of Homer, Aeschylus, Euripides, and others, to finally allow the women to tell their own tales. There's scarcely one who lived through the Trojan War who is left out (Circe had her own novel) - the major figures of Clytemnestra, Penelope, Hecuba, Helen, Cassandra, and Andromache, and the minor ones - show more Iphigeneia, the Amazon Penthesilea, Briseis and Chryseis, Laodamia, and Polyxena – are all given their voices back. And then there's the deities - the biggies Gaia, Athena, Aphrodite, Hera, and the Furies, and the minor goddesses, nymphs and girlfriends of Zeus - Thetis, Themis, Oenone, Eris, and Homer's muse, Calliope, who gets pretty fed up with him. There's a remarkable passage where Mother Earth, Gaia, complains to Zeus that the earth is overpopulated, and they strategize together about the easiest way to bring about a reduction of humans - hello, Helen of Troy! And Penelope's unsent letters to her wandering husband Odysseus, indicating her displeasure at his wanderings could be a comic novel onto themselves ("One excuse after another. You met a monster. You met a witch. Cannibals broke your ships. A whirlpool ate your friends.") The author is a heroic classicist who brings true immortality to those previously given short shrift.
Quotes: "Every man looked out for himself first and his men second, and the other Greeks after that, if at all. Merit was decided by what a man had, not by what he did."
"What could a god find to talk about with the old gods like the three Seasons, the weather?" show less
Quotes: "Every man looked out for himself first and his men second, and the other Greeks after that, if at all. Merit was decided by what a man had, not by what he did."
"What could a god find to talk about with the old gods like the three Seasons, the weather?" show less
As a novel, this is the best I've read in years. As a re-telling of the classics (combining The Iliad and The Odyssey, including many stories of the Olympian gods and goddesses), this is a powerful and entertaining narrative of the Trojan War.
Told, for the first time, from the female perspective. it is not only a brilliant take on the oldest classical literature but a moving and insightful account of war and its aftermath.
Haynes manages to combine the stories of mortals and immortals seamlessly, giving us deep insights into the minds and hearts of all the women who, until now, were merely side-characters in the Trojan conflict.
The author has deep knowledge of her subject matter and deep understanding of human nature. I laughed at the show more hilarious Judgment of Paris. I cried at Andromache's loss. I particularly enjoyed Penelope's increasingly frustrated tone in her letters to her wandering husband, Odysseus.
It is witty, it is poignant. It is brilliant and insightful. A modern classic that everyone will enjoy. show less
Told, for the first time, from the female perspective. it is not only a brilliant take on the oldest classical literature but a moving and insightful account of war and its aftermath.
Haynes manages to combine the stories of mortals and immortals seamlessly, giving us deep insights into the minds and hearts of all the women who, until now, were merely side-characters in the Trojan conflict.
The author has deep knowledge of her subject matter and deep understanding of human nature. I laughed at the show more hilarious Judgment of Paris. I cried at Andromache's loss. I particularly enjoyed Penelope's increasingly frustrated tone in her letters to her wandering husband, Odysseus.
It is witty, it is poignant. It is brilliant and insightful. A modern classic that everyone will enjoy. show less
I could not put this down. I loved Circe and Silence of the Girls and this is right up there with them. If you love Greek mythology, especially ones focused on the women - then look no further. A Thousand Ships isn't about Achilles and Odysseus - it's about the unsung heroes - the women. From Cassandra to Hecabe to hated Helen of Troy - A Thousand Ships weaves together all of the women's stories. More times than not - they are horrible, and suffer time and again. But they will not be forgotten. All of the untold and unheralded stories, pushed aside in favor of the big brutish warriors and kings but hidden no longer. Compelling, heartfelt, and one I will CERTAINLY come back to time and again. Wonderfully written.
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- Canonical title
- A Thousand Ships
- Original publication date
- 2019; 2021-01-26 (US publication) (US publication)
- People/Characters
- Helen of Troy; Hecabe; Cassandra; Briseis
- Important places
- Ancient Greece; Troy
- Important events
- Trojan War
- Epigraph
- Her excellent reputation will never be lost;
the gods will create a song to delight mortals
about clever Penelope.
So unlike my wife, who did awful things...
Agamemnon, Odyssey Book 24.196-199 - Dedication
- For Keziah, of course
- First words
- Sing, Muse, he says, and the edge in his voice makes it clear that this is not a request.
- Quotations
- Because really, how many cannibalistic giants can one Greek plausibly meet as he sails the open seas? Even I, expert in your ability to create trouble, think one set is probably sufficient for your story.
- Last words
- (Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)Well, do you hear me? I have sung.
- Original language
- English
- Canonical DDC/MDS
- 823.92
- Canonical LCC
- PR6108.A9686
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- Reviews
- 61
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- 7 — English, French, German, Hungarian, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish
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- ISBNs
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- 12