The speechlessness of girls

For the first time in Bulgarian - a work by one of the most distinguished English writers Pat Barker (b. 1943), winner of the Booker Prize and the Guardian Prize and finalist for the Ladies„ Literary Award with this very novel.

We all remember the legend of the Trojan War, when the army of the Greeks besieged Troy to save the beautiful Helen from the treacherous foreigners and to plunder the untold riches that were kept behind the walls of the city. Many great heroes took part in the battles, the bravest of whom was Achilles. At the end of the war, he became a victim of treachery, but immortalized his name forever...
But was it all that smooth? The Trojan queen Briseis, who was captured during one of Achilles' raids and became his slave and concubine, knows best. This is her story of hate, of hardship and terror, of humility and... love.
Pat Barker, one of England's most distinguished contemporary writers with many awards to her credit, including a Booker, has done a very brave thing by taking a classic work and infusing it with new content, bringing the static myth to life, stripping the gilding from the noble fairy tale characters and turning them into flesh and blood humans. And most of all it has brought to the fore women like Briseis, forced to share a bed with the man who burned her hometown and murdered her husband and four brothers.
World history is written by the winners. It is told by men for men. And women? Let us also hear the voice of women, forced for centuries to live with pain and humiliation, in silence.