We unfortunately didn't get to have a book club meeting for A Thousand Ships by Natalie Haynes, but I wanted to write about it anyway because I don't read a lot of mythological retellings. I guess I wouldn't really call this one a retelling, but more like a reframing of the narrative during the fall of the city of Troy. It focuses on the stories of the women who were involved in or the victims of the siege on Troy.
First, the cover is gorgeous. The copy I borrowed from a friend even had the rose gold, shiny in lay on it. (I posted a pic on my Instagram of it.)
The overarching backstory of the book is the muse Calliope making sure the poet who is pleading to her is getting the story of the women down. She wants to make sure the poet is hearing and sharing the stories of these women.
The chapters then jump around a bit following some longer stories of the women and some short. Some of the stories only last a chapter and are a snapshot of the tragedy the war cause these women. Other stories are multi-chapter, but spaced out. My favourite story-chapters were those of the letters from Penelope and those that followed what happened to the women from the royal family of Troy.
The letters from Penelope are hers to Odysseus, her husband, King of Ithaca. They are basically like a Cole's notes version of Homer's The Odyssey! She details hearing of his trials while he is trying to return home after 10 years away at the Trojan war. I feel like I don't have to read The Odyssey now, haha.
As for the downfall of Trojan royal family chapters, those were super interesting because some include flashforwards - due to the one daughter's gift of sight - and flashbacks as the queen, Hecate, recalled things about her life and the war. It was quite fascinating and wonderful to not have the story focused on the men who fought and won the war.
Another intriguing chapter was the one on the Amazons who came to fight against Greece and Achilles. It was splendid and I wish there was more of that story. Only one of the women that the book follows receives what one could call a 'happy ending'. Maybe not so much a happy ending, but one that is satisfactory and doesn't end in tragedy.
Now, I know the 2004 film Troy has a bunch of historical inaccuracies in it, but had having seen it, it did help me follow along a bit more on some of the events that happened during the Trojan war that are mentioned in the book. So, while not a great movie, it helped me keep some things organized in my brain timeline while reading.
Would recommend this book for fans of Greek mythology and stories of historical women. I also heard Hayne's other novel, Stone Blind is also quite good - on par with A Thousand Ships.
