The Voyage Home, Pat Barker
The Voyage Home, Pat Barker
List: $20.00 | Sale: $14.00
Club: $10.00

The Voyage Home

Author: Pat Barker

Narrator: Kristin Atherton

Unabridged: 9 hr 36 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 12/03/2024


Synopsis

One of Kirkus Reviews' Best Fiction Books of the Year • One of the Financial Times' Best Fiction Books of the Year • One of The Times' Best Novels of the Year • AN INSTANT UK BESTSELLER

“Barker’s vision of a world shaped by violence, a key theme in all her fiction, is equal to the tragic grandeur of ancient myth....More brilliant work from one of world literature’s greatest writers.” —Kirkus Reviews *starred review*

From the Booker Prize-winning author of The Regeneration Trilogy comes the powerful third installment to the Women of Troy series. In The Voyage Home, Pat Barker skillfully reimagines Greek mythology, chronicling a perilous journey undertaken by the enslaved healer Ritsa and her cruel mistress Cassandra.

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.

About The Author

PAT BARKER is the author of sixteen novels, beginning with her masterpiece Union Street in 1982. Her Regeneration Trilogy novels, set in the First World War, were awarded the Booker Prize and praised as some of the greatest historical novels in British literature. Her novel The Silence of the Girls was shortlisted for the Women’s Prize for Fiction and the Gordon Prize in the UK and won the Independent Bookshop Award in 2019. She was made a CBE (Commander of the Order of the British Empire) in 2000. She lives in Durham, England.


Reviews

Goodreads review by William on 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 g......more

Goodreads review by P.C. on January 02, 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......more

Goodreads review by Ron on December 03, 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......more

Goodreads review by Booksblabbering || Cait❣️ on July 02, 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 daughte......more

Goodreads review by Charlotte on April 01, 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 stor......more


Quotes

AN INSTANT UK BESTSELLER

One of Kirkus Reviews' Best Fiction Books of the Year • One of the Financial Times' Best Fiction Books of the Year • One of The Times' Best Novels of the Year


“One of contemporary literature's most thoughtful and compelling writers.” —The Washington Post

“Barker’s vision of a world shaped by violence, a key theme in all her fiction, is equal to the tragic grandeur of ancient myth, and her insistence that ordinary people’s sufferings be given equal weight with the woes of the mighty gives it a contemporary edge. More brilliant work from one of world literature’s greatest writers.” —Kirkus Reviews *starred review*

“Barker suffuses [her] wrenching narrative with the women’s simmering contempt for the men who rule their world. Readers will relish this fierce feminist retelling.” —Publishers Weekly