Great Achilles. Shining Achilles, radiant Achilles, god-like Achilles... We never called him that; we called him "the Butcher." Briseis meets a cruel fate: once the queen of Lyrnessos, she finds herself as a slave beside the great Achilles, the destroyer of her homeland and murderer of her family, after the city is taken. In the camp before Troy, she becomes a plaything for bored and frustrated warriors and kings. But Briseis is not content with the role of the defeated. Can she survive in this male-dominated world and become the creator of her own story? In her award-winning masterpiece, Pat Barker finally allows this breathtaking woman to step out of silence to retell her story and that of the Trojan War.