This novel retells the story of Homer’s Iliad in the voice of Briseis, the captive woman whose seizure by Agamemnon sparks Achilles’ rage and sets the plot in motion, but who is allowed to speak only a few lines in the Iliad itself. From Briseis’ perspective, and from the perspective of the other captive women in the Achaean camp, the familiar story takes on a new dimension, giving us a sense of the way war affects all those who are pulled into its orbit, not just the male combatants.