If you liked
Books like The Women of Troy
by Pat Barker
The Women of Troy is Pat Barker's clear-eyed retelling of the fall of Troy from the side of its captive women, a sequel to The Silence of the Girls. It hands the myth to the people history silenced. If you want more feminist mythology and rich historical retelling, read on.
The shortlist
What to read next
Circeby Madeline Miller
“Circe by Madeline Miller 2018 review. The witch-goddess of the Odyssey narrates her own life. Miller's second novel and the canonical contemporary feminist mythic re-telling.”
The Song of Achillesby Madeline Miller
“The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller 2011 review. The Trojan War retold from Patroclus's perspective, written by a classicist with the patience the source material deserves. The novel that defined the contemporary feminist mythic re-telling subgenre and rebuilt Miller's audience for Circe.”
The Marriage Portraitby Maggie O'Farrell
“The Marriage Portrait by Maggie O'Farrell 2022 review. Lucrezia di Cosimo de' Medici recognizes that her husband, the Duke of Ferrara, intends to kill her. O'Farrell's Hamnet follow-up.”
Hamnetby Maggie O'Farrell
“Hamnet by Maggie O'Farrell 2020 review. The death of William Shakespeare's eleven-year-old son and the four years before Hamlet is written. The Women's Prize winning novel about marriage, grief, and the play that came out of it.”
The Priory of the Orange Treeby Samantha Shannon
“The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon 2019 review. A standalone epic fantasy across four kingdoms preparing for the return of a banished ancient dragon. Canonical contemporary literary epic fantasy.”
Wolf Hallby Hilary Mantel
“Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel 2009 review. Thomas Cromwell, the blacksmith's son who rose to serve Henry VIII, reorganizes the English state at the cost of his own soul. Booker Prize 2009 and the most important historical novel of the twenty-first century.”
FAQ
Common questions about The Women of Troy read-alikes
- What is the closest match in the catalog?
- Circe by Madeline Miller. It gives a mythological woman the interior life and agency the old stories denied her, exactly Barker's project with the women of Troy. The Song of Achilles retells the Iliad through love and is the more romantic pick.
- I want a real historical woman written back into the record.
- The Marriage Portrait and Hamnet, both by Maggie O'Farrell, take actual Renaissance women and give them the interior lives history overlooked. Different era, same act of restoration.
- I want sweeping, serious historical fiction.
- Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel rebuilds the Tudor court with unmatched intelligence. It is not myth, but it shares Barker's command of a brutal historical world and the people caught inside it.
- I want epic scope with women at the center.
- The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon offers sprawling fantasy led by women, with dragons and courts. A change of genre that keeps the focus on women shaping their own fates.
The original