Shortlisted for the Women's Prize for Fiction 2020

One of the Guardian's and TLS's 'Best Books of 2019'

In A Thousand Ships, broadcaster and classicist Natalie Haynes retells the story of the Trojan War from an all-female perspective, for fans of Madeline Miller and Pat Barker.

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.

Powerfully told from an all-female perspective, in A Thousand Ships Natalie Haynes puts the women, girls and goddesses at the centre of the story.

'With her trademark passion, wit, and fierce feminism, Natalie Haynes gives much-needed voice to the silenced women of the Trojan War' – Madeline Miller, author of Circe

'A gripping feminist masterpiece' – Deborah Frances-White, The Guilty Feminist

From Natalie Haynes, the Women's Prize shortlisted author of A Thousand Ships, comes The Children of Jocasta, a retelling of Oedipus and Antigone from the perspectives of the women the myths overlooked.

My siblings and I have grown up in a cursed house, children of cursed parents . . .

Jocasta is just fifteen when she is told that she must marry the King of Thebes, an old man she has never met. Her life has never been her own, and nor will it be, unless she outlives her strange, absent husband.

Ismene is the same age when she is attacked in the palace she calls home. Since the day of her parents' tragic deaths a decade earlier, she has always longed to feel safe with the family she still has. But with a single act of violence, all that is about to change.

With the turn of these two events, a tragedy is set in motion. But not as you know it.

'Haynes balances a fresh take on the material . . . giving new voice to the often-overlooked but fascinating Jocasta and Ismene.' - Madeline Miller, author of Circe.

'Funny, sharp explications of what these sometimes not-very-nice women were up to!' – Margaret Atwood, author of The Handmaid's Tale

The Greek myths are among the world's most important cultural building blocks and they have been retold many times, but rarely do they focus on the remarkable women at the heart of these ancient stories.

Stories of gods and monsters are the mainstay of epic poetry and Greek tragedy, from Homer to Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides, from the Trojan War to Jason and the Argonauts. And still, today, a wealth of novels, plays and films draw their inspiration from stories first told almost three thousand years ago. But modern tellers of Greek myth have usually been men, and have routinely shown little interest in telling women’s stories. And when they do, those women are often painted as monstrous, vengeful or just plain evil. But Pandora – the first woman, who according to legend unloosed chaos upon the world – was not a villain, and even Medea and Phaedra have more nuanced stories than generations of retellings might indicate.

Now, in Pandora's Jar: Women in the Greek Myths, Natalie Haynes – broadcaster, writer and passionate classicist – redresses this imbalance. Taking Pandora and her jar (the box came later) as the starting point, she puts the women of the Greek myths on equal footing with the menfolk. After millennia of stories telling of gods and men, be they Zeus or Agamemnon, Paris or Odysseus, Oedipus or Jason, the voices that sing from these pages are those of Hera, Athena and Artemis, and of Clytemnestra, Jocasta, Eurydice and Penelope.

'A treasure box of classical delights. Never has ancient misogyny been presented with so much wit and style' - historian Amanda Foreman

From the Women's Prize-shortlisted author of A Thousand Ships and Pandora's Jar comes a critically-acclaimed novel of grief, myth and Greek tragedy.

When you open up, who will you let in?

Alex Morris has lost everything:her relationship, her career and her faith in the future. Moving to Edinburgh to escape her demons, Alex takes a job teaching at a Pupil Referral Unit. It's a place for kids whose behaviour is so extreme that they cannot be taught in a normal classroom. Alex is fragile with grief and way out of her depth.

Her fourth-year students are troubled and violent. In desperation to reach them, Alex turns to the stories she knows best. Greek tragedy isn't the most obvious way to win over such damaged children, yet these tales of fate, family and vengeance speak directly to them.

Enthralled by the bloodthirsty justice of the ancient world, the teenagers begin to weave the threads of their own tragedy - one that Alex watches, helpless to prevent.

*** Shortlisted for the Deanston Scottish Crime Book of the Year Award 2014 ***
*** Longlisted for the IMPAC Dublin Literary Award 2014 ***

It's time for us to re-examine the past. Our lives are infinitely richer if we take the time to look at what the Greeks and Romans have given us in politics and law, religion and philosophy and education, and to learn how people really lived in Athens, Rome, Sparta and Alexandria. This is a book with a serious point to make but the author isn't simply a classicist but a comedian and broadcaster who has made television and radio documentaries about humour, education and Dorothy Parker. This is a book for us all.

Whether political, cultural or social, there are endless parallels between the ancient and modern worlds. Whether it's the murder of Caesar or the political assassination of Thatcher; the narrative arc of the hit HBO series The Wire or that of Oedipus; the popular enthusiasm for the Emperor Titus or President Obama - over and over again we can be seen to be living very much like people did 2,000 or more years ago.

"Haynes is master of her trade . . . She succeeds in breathing warm life into some of our oldest stories.”—Telegraph (UK)

The national bestselling author of A Thousand Ships and Pandora's Jar returns with a fresh and stunningly perceptive take on the story of Medusa, the original monstered woman.

They will fear you and flee you and call you a monster. 

The only mortal in a family of gods, Medusa is the youngest of the Gorgon sisters. Unlike her siblings, Medusa grows older, experiences change, feels weakness. Her mortal lifespan gives her an urgency that her family will never know.

When the sea god Poseidon assaults Medusa in Athene’s temple, the goddess is enraged. Furious by the violation of her sacred space, Athene takes revenge—on the young woman. Punished for Poseidon’s actions, Medusa is forever transformed. Writhing snakes replace her hair and her gaze will turn any living creature to stone. Cursed with the power to destroy all she loves with one look, Medusa condemns herself to a life of solitude.

Until Perseus embarks upon a fateful quest to fetch the head of a Gorgon . . .

In Stone Blind, classicist and comedian Natalie Haynes turns our understanding of this legendary myth on its head, bringing empathy and nuance to one of the earliest stories in which a woman—injured by a powerful man—is blamed, punished, and monstered for the assault. Delving into the origins of this mythic tale, Haynes revitalizes and reconstructs Medusa’s story with her passion and fierce wit, offering a timely retelling of this classic myth that speaks to us today.

Una novela magistral sobre la guerra de Troya contada desde una perspectiva femenina.

«Ésta nunca ha sido la historia de una mujer, ni de dos: es la de todas».

En plena noche, una mujer se despierta y observa que su amada ciudad está envuelta en llamas. Los diez años de conflicto entre griegos y troyanos, que parecían no tener fin, quedan atrás, con Troya reducida a cenizas.

Desde las mujeres troyanas, cuyos destinos ahora están en manos de los griegos, hasta la princesa amazona que, en nombre de ellas, luchó contra Aquiles, pasando por Penélope, que espera el regreso de Ulises, o las tres diosas con cuya contienda empezó todo... Éstas son las fabulosas historias de unas mujeres envueltas en una guerra legendaria y marcadas por sus terribles secuelas.

La crítica ha dicho...
«Con la pasión que la caracteriza, su ingenio y un feminismo intenso, Natalie Haynes dota de una voz realmente necesaria a las mujeres silenciadas de la guerra de Troya».
Madeline Miller, autora de Circe

«Absorbente y de un feminismo valiente. [...] Su revisión original de los clásicos es una delicia de múltiples capas».
The Guardian

«Haynes es una maestra de su oficio. [...] Consigue insuflar pasión vital a algunas de nuestras leyendas más antiguas para demostrar cómo han cambiado las relaciones humanas y las emociones más elementales».
The Telegraph

«Una historia feminista ingeniosa sobre el sufrimiento, el coraje y la entereza de las mujeres. La frescura de la versión moderna de Haynes de una historia antigua es perfecta para nuestros tiempos».
Booklist

«Esta vívida reinvención [de la Guerra de Troya] bien vale el viaje».
Library Journal

«Una apasionante obra maestra del feminismo».
Deborah Frances-White, The Guilty Feminist

«Este libro no se limita a reconocer el sufrimiento de las mujeres. De manera vívida, cuenta apasionantes historias de coraje, traición y venganza».
The Washington Post

«Hábil y muy bien tramada. [...] A través de detalles muy evocativos, Haynes consigue recrear de forma admirable la vida de las mujeres griegas y troyanas».
The New York Times

«Un relato cautivador de las vidas de las mujeres de las culturas troyana y griega. [...] Haynes reconstruye con brillantez la visión establecida de la guerra de Troya para plasmar las experiencias de las mujeres.»
Publishers Weekly

"Supremely entertaining"

It's 531 AD. Emperor Justinian and his ex-prostitute Empress, Theodora, rule the eastern Roman Empire. But fate is fickle; in the sophisticated, complex world of the Byzantine Empire, power and death go hand in hand.

Anastasia, successful ex-courtesan of Constantinople, isn't interested in politics. Instead she plans to spend her retirement reading, entertaining friends and enjoying the sea air. But life, as usual, has other plans. Recovering from a hangover after her retirement party, she's visited by her handsome playboy ex-lover, who begs her help in finding his vanished new bride. It's not long before the corpses begin to pile up, including Anastasia's much-loved protege Helena. Anastasia is advised to take a holiday for her health, but she's not content to let her friend's death go unavenged. Determined to get to the bottom of all this, she sets off to find the elusive teenage bride - and finds herself into more trouble than she bargained for. 

Meet Anastasia, a lusty heroine who likes virile men, poetry and a hot bath, in that order; Chloe, her dagger-wielding, ball-crunching slave, and Euphemia, the kind of girl you'd probably rather kill yourself than spend a weekend with.

Sexy, witty historical page turner you won't easily be able to put down...