In A Thousand Ships, Calliope, goddess of poetry, takes us through the Trojan War — where women become the deserving center of the most epic story ever told. A fresh entry into a burgeoning category of modern retellings, this story collection is a beautiful doorway to the inimitable ancient works.
A gorgeous retelling of the Trojan War from the perspectives of the many women involved in its causes and consequences
“This is the women’s war, just as much as it is the men’s. They have waited long enough for their turn.”
This was never the story of one woman or two. It was the story of them all.
In the middle of the night, a woman wakes to find her beloved city engulfed in flames. Ten seemingly endless years of conflict between the Greeks and the Trojans are over. Troy has fallen.
From the Trojan women whose fates now lie in the hands of the Greeks, to the Amazon princess who fought Achilles on their behalf, to Penelope awaiting the return of Odysseus, to the three goddesses whose feud started it all, these are the stories of the women whose lives, loves, and rivalries were forever altered by this long and tragic war.
A woman’s epic, powerfully imbued with new life, A Thousand Ships puts the women, girls, and goddesses at the center of the Western world’s greatest tale ever told.
Natalie Haynes is the author of six books and has written and recorded six series of Natalie Haynes Stands Up for the Classics for the BBC. She has written for the London Times, the Independent, the Guardian, and the Observer. She is a graduate of Cambridge University and an award-winning comedian, journalist, and broadcaster. She was a judge for the Man Booker Prize in 2013 and for the final Orange Prize in 2012. She is a regular panelist on Radio 4’s Saturday Review and the long-running arts show, Front Row.
Readers can’t get enough of new interpretations of classic mythology and other epic stories like The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller, The Silence of the Girls by Pat Barker or the Lore Olympus series by Rachel Smythe. If you’re like us and want to check out the original source material like The Iliad or […]
This month, have dinner with a family of true-crime aficionados, rewind time to a notorious brothel in ancient Pompeii, enjoy a magical twist on The Great Gatsby, recenter the Greek myths and the women often villainized in them, attend an elite boarding school with a chilling story of monsters and mystery, and unlock your imagination to fight against thirteen witches that are at the root of all evil in the world.
Whether you’re looking for a recommendation or just want to make sure you haven’t missed anything, here are our picks for the best mythological retellings to read right now.
