A Thousand Ships, Natalie Haynes.

A Thousand Ships, Natalie Haynes.

Audiobook read by Natalie Haynes.

"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 embroiled in the legendary war."

Homero's Iliad might have told the story of the men of the Trojan war, but Natalie Haynes takes an all-female perspective and gives us a powerful story of the women, girls and goddesses in the Trojan war. The storytelling is magnificent as one has learned to expect from Haynes. She is witty, passionate and fierce in her words. The plot moves on quickly from one woman to the next, someone's story being longer and someone's shorter. You will hear what happened to Hector's wife Andromache, queen Hecuba, princess Cassandra and many more. Everyone has their own favourites, but personally I will miss the Trojan princess Cassandra the most.

I gasped several times listening to this book, and once again the impressive reading by the author herself made it seem like there was a greek play happening right in front of me. I seriously can't recommend this book enough, so if you like stories of ancient Greece, just read this. You won't be disappointed.

Reading suggestion:

Ideally, I think you should first read Madeline Miller's The Song of Achilles, and then continue straight with this book. Personally I found this to be a good order, as the Thousand Ships starts from the end of the war.