Poor things by Alasdair Gray

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The Leopard
Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa
1958 · 282 pages · 1 review
Others: Positive
The acclaimed novel by Lampedusa gives an exquisite portrait of a despotic Sicilian aristocrat. The story unfolds over the duration of Italian reunification during the nineteenth century, beginning at the time when Garibaldi’s forces have landed on Sicily as part of his drive to unify and modernise the country.
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The children of Jocasta
Natalie Haynes
2017 · 312 pages · 1 review
Others: Positive
Retelling of Oedipus and Antigone from the perspectives of the women the myths overlooked. Thebes is a city in mourning, still reeling from a devastating attack of plague that invaded every home and left the survivors devastated and fearful. This is the Thebes that Jocasta has known her entire life, a city ruled by a king--her husband-to-be. Jocasta struggles through this miserable marriage until she is unexpectedly widowed--now free to choose her next husband, she selects the handsome, youthful Oedipus. When whispers emerge of an unbearable scandal, the very society that once lent Jocasta its support seems determined to destroy her. Ismene is a girl in mourning, longing for the golden days of her youth--days spent lolling in the courtyard garden, reading and reveling in her parents' happiness and love. Now she is an orphan, and the target of a murder plot, attacked within the very walls of the palace. As the deadly political competition swirls around her, she must uncover the root of the plot - and reveal the truth of the curse that has consumed her family. The novel is based on Oedipus Tyrannus and Antigone , two of Classical Greece's most compelling tragedies. Told in intersecting narratives, this feminist reimagining of Sophocles' classic plays brings life and voice to the women who were too often forced to the background of their own stories. It is compulsively entertaining fiction that recasts these familiar stories for the twenty-first century reader.
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Butcher's Hook
Janet Ellis
2016 · 368 pages · 4 reviews
Others: Overwhelmingly positive
Georgian London. Summer 1763. Anne Jaccob is coming of age, the daughter of a wealthy merchant. When she is taken advantage of by her tutor — a great friend of her father’s — and is set up to marry a squeamish snob named Simeon Onions, she begins to realize just how powerless she is in Georgian society. Anne is watchful, cunning, and bored. Her saviour appears in the form of Fub, the butcher’s boy. Their romance is both a great spur and an excitement. Anne knows she is doomed to a loveless marriage to Onions and she is determined to escape with Fub and be his mistress. But will Fub ultimately be her salvation or damnation? And how far will she go to get what she wants? Dark and sweeping, The Butcher’s Hook is a richly textured debut featuring one of the most memorable characters in fiction.
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A Thousand Ships
Natalie Haynes
2019 · 368 pages · 1 review
Others: Positive
"This was never the story of one woman, or two. It was the story of all of them. In the middle of the night, Creusa wakes to find her beloved Troy engulfed in flames. Ten seemingly endless years of brutal conflict between the Greeks and the Trojans are over, and the Greeks are victorious. Over the next few hours, the only life she has ever known will turn to ash. The devastating consequences of the fall of Troy stretch from Mount Olympus to Mount Ida, from the citadel of Troy to the distant Greek islands, and across oceans and sky in between. These are the stories of the women embroiled in that legendary war and its terrible aftermath, as well as the feud and the fatal decisions that started it all"--
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The silence of the girls
Pat Barker
2018 · 325 pages · 10 reviews
Others: Mostly positive
"From the Booker Prize-winning author of the Regeneration trilogy comes a monumental new masterpiece, set in the midst of literature's most famous war. Pat Barker turns her attention to the timeless legend of The Iliad, as experienced by the captured women living in the Greek camp in the final weeks of the Trojan War. The ancient city of Troy has withstood a decade under siege of the powerful Greek army, who continue to wage bloody war over a stolen woman--Helen. In the Greek camp, another woman watches and waits for the war's outcome: Briseis. She was queen of one of Troy's neighboring kingdoms, until Achilles, Greece's greatest warrior, sacked her city and murdered her husband and brothers. Briseis becomes Achilles's concubine, a prize of battle, and must adjust quickly in order to survive a radically different life, as one of the many conquered women who serve the Greek army. When Agamemnon, the brutal political leader of the Greek forces, demands Briseis for himself, she finds herself caught between the two most powerful of the Greeks. Achilles refuses to fight in protest, and the Greeks begin to lose ground to their Trojan opponents. Keenly observant and cooly unflinching about the daily horrors of war, Briseis finds herself in an unprecedented position to observe the two men driving the Greek forces in what will become their final confrontation, deciding the fate, not only of Briseis's people, but also of the ancient world at large. Briseis is just one among thousands of women living behind the scenes in this war--the slaves and prostitutes, the nurses, the women who lay out the dead--all of them erased by history. With breathtaking historical detail and luminous prose, Pat Barker brings the teeming world of the Greek camp to vivid life. She offers nuanced, complex portraits of characters and stories familiar from mythology, which, seen from Briseis's perspective, are rife with newfound revelations. Barker's latest builds on her decades-long study of war and its impact on individual lives--and it is nothing short of magnificent"-- "The Iliad, as experienced by the captured women living in the Greek camp in the final weeks of the Trojan War"--
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The ill-made knight
Christian Cameron
2013 · 464 pages · 2 reviews
Others: Positive
In 14th century France, William Gold dreams of becoming a knight, but first he must survive the savage new world in which he finds himself.
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Also historical fiction
87%
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