But the women lost everything else.” When asked why exploring this motif appealed, Haynes answers, “I felt that no one really benefits from one-sided war narratives which seemed to have become the norm: men in the trenches or the jungle, women non-existent. It offers a new perspective on this ancient story through the eyes of the myriad of women to whom the Trojan War brought fates worse than a battlefield death: “When a war was ended, the men lost their lives. Natalie Haynes’s novel, A Thousand Ships (Picador UK, 2020 / Harper US, 2021), was shortlisted for the United Kingdom’s Women’s Prize for Fiction. And death, there is so much suffering and death. Gods and goddesses choose both to favor and undermine, playing their capricious games. There is wily Odysseus, bloody Achilles, a giant wooden horse.

Years pass while a seemingly endless war rages. A thousand ships set sail to besiege the city of Troy, with its impenetrable walls. Her husband, King Menelaus, appeals to his brother, Agamemnon, and they assemble a force like the world has never seen. Perhaps we haven’t read about it since school and the entirety of the massive cast is hazy, but we all still remember the basics: Prince Paris of Troy steals away with Helen, another man’s wife, the most beautiful woman in the world. Sing, Muse, of the Women: Natalie Haynes’s A Thousand ShipsĪn old story can experience new life when told from a different perspective – and the Trojan War is a very old story.

Natalie haynes a thousand ships review