The Voyage Home

<p><b>THE EXHILARATING FOLLOW-UP TO PAT BARKER'S <i>THE WOMEN OF TROY </i>AND <i>THE SILENCE OF THE GIRLS</i></b><br><br>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.<br><br>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 Cassandra's frenzies and the horrors to come.<br><br>Meanwhile, awaiting the fleet's return is Queen Clytemnestra, vengeful wife of Agamemnon. Heart-shattered by her husband's 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.<br><br>As one wife journeys toward the other, united by the vision of Agamemnon's death, one thing is certain: this long-awaited homecoming will change everyone's fates forever.<br><br><b>'The queen of literary historical fiction, Barker is an unflinching guide for a trip across ancient Greece' <i>National Geographic</i><br><br>'In her thrilling retelling of the stories of Cassandra and Clytemnestra, Barker conjures up a world stained by the grief of mothers and daughters. Agamemnon's palace is the stuff of nightmares, a world of suspicion and fear, plagued by the ghosts of innocents' <i>Paula Hawkins</i><br><br>'You go to her for plain truths, a driving storyline and a clear eye, steadily facing the history of our world' <i>Guardian</i></b></p>