Troy

by Adèle Geras

The classic struggle between Greece and Troy brought to life by a panoramic chorus of voices both humble and high, human and divine.
The siege of Troy has lasted almost ten years. Inside the walled city, food is becoming scarce and the death toll is rising. From the heights of Mount Olympus, the Gods keep watch.
But Aphrodite, Goddess of Love, is bored with the endless, dreary war, and so she turns her attention to two Marpessa, who is gifted with God-sight and serves as handmaiden to Helen, the most beautiful woman in the world; and Xanthe, who is kind and loving and tends the wounded soldiers in the Blood Room. When Eros fits an arrow to his silver-lit bow and lets it fly, neither sister will escape its power.
With vitality and grace, Adèle Geras breathes personality, heartbreak, and humor into this classic story. This is truly an inspired novel, told through the eyes of the women of Troy, in which the Gods move among mortals and an ancient city is brought to life.

Genres: Historical Fiction, Young Adult, Mythology, Fiction, Fantasy, Historical, Greek Mythology

340 pages, Hardcover

First published March 17, 2000

About the author

Adèle Geras FRSL (born 15 March 1944) is an English writer for young children, teens and adults. Her husband was the Marxist academic Norman Geras and their daughter Sophie Hannah is also a novelist and poet.

Geras was born in Jerusalem, British Mandatory Palestine. Her father was in the Colonial Service and she had a varied childhood, living in countries such as Nigeria, Cyprus, Tanzania, Gambia and British North Borneo in a short span of time. She attended Roedean School in Brighton and then graduated from St Hilda's College, Oxford with a degree in Modern Languages. She was known for her stage and vocal talents, but decided instead to become a full-time writer.

Geras's first book was Tea at Mrs Manderby's, which was published in 1976. Her first full-length novel was The Girls in the Velvet Frame. She has written more than 95 books for children, young adults, and adults. Her best-known books are Troy (shortlisted for the Whitbread Prize and Highly Commended for the Carnegie Medal) Ithaka, Happy Ever After (previously published as the Egerton Hall Trilogy), Silent Snow, Secret Snow, and A Thousand Yards of Sea.

Her novels for adults include: Facing the Light, Hester's Story, Made in Heaven, and A Hidden Life.

Geras won two prizes in the United States, one the Sydney Taylor Book Award for the My Grandmother's Stories and the National Jewish Book Award for Golden Windows. She has also won prizes for her poetry and was a joint winner of the Smith Doorstop Poetry Pamphlet Award, offered by the publisher of that name.

(from Wikipedia)

Reviews

[Gary]

Adele Geras takes the story of the Iliad, and while recreating it in way that mingles high adventure, tragedy, humour and fatalism, focuses specifically on the fates of five young people and is essentially a romance set in the framework of the Trojan War.
While the war rages, and Hector leads the Trojan armies in protection of the cities walls against the Greek hordes of Agamemnon, the goddess of desire Aphrodite plays a cruel trick, as is the habit of the Greek gods to toy with the lives of mortals, on two young Trojan sisters, the strong-willed yet gentle Xanthe, and the quiet and spiritual Marpessa by making them fall in love with the same young man, the warrior Alastor.. Meanwhile the stable hand Iason is in love with Xanthe, and Xanthe's friend Polyxena passionately loves Iason . But we also get to see the great events of the Iliad, such as the slaying of Hector by Achilles, and his desecration of Hector's body by dragging it around the gates of Troy, in his chariot, and the delivery of the wooden Horse to Troy leading to the horrific genocide of Troy that we read about at the end-after all this story is about war as much as about romance.
We read about the characters of Helen, Paris, Hector, Adrymache, Priam and the myriad of gods and goddesses and the author's own unique interpretation of them. What follows is an absorbing and sensitive read, if not quite an epic.

[Chelsea]

I swear, if one more god turns up and tells one of the characters exactly what is going to happen only for them to forget everything about the entire encounter 30 seconds later, I will scream. It happens every other chapter! They're the Greek Gods of the Parthenon, the epitome of vain! They wouldn't want to be forgotten! I call shenanigans!

Excellent writing, depressing and poorly handled (and someone else's) plot, "eh" original characters. I'm not quite sure why this won so many awards.

[Jackie]

The worst re-telling of all time. Nothing original, except for a ridiculously juvenile love story of minor characters that was more filler than story. Exceptionally bad dialogue.
I assumed this was a debut novel because it was so bad. I was astonished, upon completion, to find that Geras has written many books. I would say 'Don't quit your day job' but apparently this is her day job.

[Isaac]

This book was pretty boring. It wasn't on my list of books, nor was it recommended by anyone, so I took a chance. The only reason I got it was because I just finished Les Miserable and wanted a short one to off set that monster.

The story is basically just what goes on in the life of a few girls who live in Troy during their war with the Greeks. It had no plot or if it did it was so bland and transparent that I didn't catch on.

Random gods would appear to different character for no reason whatsoever. They didn't add to the story in the least and the characters would forget anything they would told by them anyway. The only reason I could see that they were in the story was to show that the gods where involved in the fate of Troy and its inhabitants.

So, in short very boring; skip this one.

[M]

It's a sad time in the city of Troy. The war has been going on for 10 years and it has spread it's roots into each and every household, spreading misery and death and sorrow. Soldiers go out to war every morning, leaving behind widows and orphans; women spend the day in terror, wondering whether their husbands, sons and brothers will come back or not. Food is scarce, thanks to the siege and money is spent endlessly on the war, on the weapons and food for the horses. Anything that is moving is cooked and served on the table. Even the palace can not afford much luxury.

And in the middle of all this sadness are two sisters, Xanthe and Marpessa. The two are orphans, found on the mountain and brought to the palace, where they grew up working for the princesses. The elder, Xanthe, works in the blood room, the place where all wounded soldiers are brought and given treatment. She works there looking after the wounded, caring for them, healing them. She also works for Andromache, wife of Hector. She looks after their son, Astyanax, a baby just learning to speak. The younger one, Marpessa, works for Helen who loves her as though she were her own daughter. Marpessa is gifted, she sees the Gods and speaks to them, and more importantly, is the only one who actually remembers seeing them. These two sisters work hard, supporting each other in these troubled times and caring for one another. Till something comes between them.

A young warrior named Alastor. He first wins over Xanthe's heart, and then promptly loses his own to Marpessa. Now the two sisters are set up against each other and by none other than the goddess Aphrodite herself.

The story is set in the background of the war, there are many narratives and threads and the author shifts easily between them. The writing is fluid and intoxicating, the descriptions are easy to follow. What makes it even more exciting is the inevitable doom we all know is coming. I really like the way the author blends in the gods into all of this, the way she shows the multiple love triangles from every characters point of view, not slighting any character and giving each one a chance to justify their actions. Alastor, I think, is a bit underdeveloped as a character. He does nothing but chase Marpessa for most of the book lusting after her before suddenly falling in love with her abruptly in the end. Xanthe too, is a bit pig headed throughout the book, refusing to see that the one she loves does not return her affections. But all in all it is a beautiful story.

[Natasa]

A wonderful re-telling of the story of the Trojan War, from the perspective of the Trojans instead of the Greeks. Make the characters very human and is highly readable and interesting. Full review you can find on my blog: https://poetryofreading.blogspot.com

[Rashmi Umashankar]

I'm studying for my Greek Mythology final (yay for fun electives!) and I couldn't help but think of where my fascination for Greek myths started. Before you say the obvious, nope, it wasn't Percy Jackson. Don't get me wrong, the Percy Jackson series helped me firmly establish my love for greek myth but it wasn't what got me started in the first place. It was this seemingly random choice that I made at a bookstore that I don't even remember that started it all. Troy by Adele Geras isn't a great book. I'm not going to wax poetic about it and give it 5 stars. But what I will say is that this book is very close to my heart. So close that probably 10 years after I read this, I still remember the names of the characters - Xanthe, Marpessa, Polyxena, etc. I love how my first book on the Trojan war didn't actually focus on the war itself nor the Gods but revolved around a few Trojan citizens. The backdrop of the war that one doesn't often get to explore. Was pretty cool, that.
Also, cuz I'm reminiscent, this book gave me my first encounter with a penis euphemism. Something, something boiled squid, if I remember right. Hmm.

[Ece]

Kitap kötü değil; akıcı ve okunabilir. Ama Truva gibi büyük bir destanı okurken savaşın ve insan doğasının trajedisini bekliyordum. Bunun yerine çoğu zaman kendimi mitolojik bir arka plana yerleştirilmiş sıradan bir aşk romanı okuyor gibi hissettim.

[Dr. Andy]

This was a great retelling of the Trojan war, but from the perspective of normal people. None of our main characters were big heroes in the war. Ten years in, the war is still going strong. Sisters Marpessa and Xanthe play different roles inside the city, but remain close. Xanthe is a healer of wounded soliders. Marpessa is a weaver who can see the gods. When Eros strikes Xanthe with an arrow from his bow, the sisters become entangled in a love story as complicated as the gods.

I loved seeing the Trojan war from a different perspective. It was compelling in a different way than other retellings are. While we still hear and see of the key characters of the war like Achilles, Hector and Odysseus. They are side characters here. I really enjoyed seeing this different facet of life in Troy. I also liked seeing more about Paris and Helen. Often times, we only see that they were one cause of the war, but in Troy we become entangled in their life.

The story of the sisters and their entangled lives was captivating in a slow moving and loving way. I enjoyed seeing the conflicts between them rise and fall. Seeing the ending of the Trojan war from their perspective was awful and despair-inducing. That's about where my interest stopped too. I couldn't seem to stay focused on it after that point. I don't know if I was tired of war or if it was the book itself.

Overall, would recommend for a different kind of Trojan war experience.

[Jaclynn (JackieReadsAlot)]

I expected more only because of how many awards it has won. I was hoping I could recommend it to my teenage students but there is too much sex and adult content for Taiwanese teens. How did it win children's book awards?
Not a bad story, just not very creative and far too ridiculously juvenile love story. Random gods and goddesses would appear to a character for no reason whatsoever. They didn't add to the story in the least and the characters would forget anything they would told by them anyway. The only reason I could see that they were in the story was to show that the gods where involved in the fate of Troy and its inhabitants.
I think adults can skip this one.

[Marwa Hassan]

انها الحرب قد تُثقل القلب
و لكن خلفك عار العرب !!
,,, تذكرت هذه المقوله عندما رفض اليونانين الرحيل عند طردواه قبل ان يأخذو بالثار ممن قتل ملكهم
الفيلم ملحمه ,
اكتر شئ عجبنى فكره القتال بالسيف و الدرع , اد ايه شئ عظيم ان المقاتل يقاتل خصمه وجها لوجهه فى ايده سيف و ايده التانيه درع
القتال بيكون متعه خصوصا ممن يتحلى بأخلاق الفرسان
اللى اخترع المسدس و القنايل ده شخص جبان اللى يخليك تقتل خصمك من مسافات بعيده
القتال فى حد ذاته شجاعه و احنا فى زمن الجبناء !

[David]

I tried, but I couldn't move beyond page 133.

While I can appreciate that Geras is introducing the myths of the Trojan War to young readers, I fault her for not making it her own. I have read the Iliad, the Odyssey, the Fall of Troy, and the Aeneid, and this story just felt like a less-interesting retelling. I couldn't get invested in either the story of the three servant girls or the re-told events of the Trojan War. There just wasn't enough of a focus.

The chapters are jolting--very short, skipping from one vantage point to another and moving from one setting to another. There's no time to be invested in anybody, and I was left just not caring, which was why I abandoned this book before getting halfway through. There were times when I was interested in the picture of Paris as a slimy man or Helen as a bit of a bimbo or Hector as a man struggling with his love for his wife Andromache and his attraction to Helen, but again, the chapters were far too jumpy to maintain a train of narrative. Perhaps that's the nature of trying to tackle an epic with a huge catalog of characters.

And the gods--well, they, too, were uninteresting. They were just the same old gods, without much originality of interpretation. Geras takes them too literally, showing Venus whenever someone is falling in love or about to make love. Or even worse, she has Cupid strike one of her characters with an arrow. Talk about hackneyed. Maybe I've read too much about them and have lost interest, but bringing us into contact with Hephaestus or Mars just isn't enough. You've got to do more with them.

[Margaret]

Troy is a good retelling of the Trojan War from essentially the beginning of Homer's Iliad to just after the fall of Troy. Geras's heroines are Xanthe, nurse to the son of Hector and Andromache, and Marpessa, handmaiden to Helen; she weaves her own characters skillfully into the tapestry of the characters familiar from Greek mythology. We all know how the story ends, but by providing her own characters and making them sympathetic, so that the reader wants to find out what happens to them, Geras instills new interest in the inevitable fall of Troy.

I also liked how Geras handled the gods; Marpessa has God-sight and can always see and speak to them when they're present, but generally, the gods appear in visions to the characters, reveal what they've come to reveal, and disappear again, upon which the character they've spoken to forgets the encounter, though often retaining a feeling of foreboding. I'm picky about my Greek mythology retellings, and I thought Troy worked very well.

[Haris Sladic]

Drugacije ispricana prica o ratu u Troju kroz oci zena koje su zivjele tamo. Knjiga mi je bila sasvim ok. LIkovi su dobro napisani, lako se mozete vezati za njih. Ljubavni elementi su mi bili uredu, nisam imao onaj osjecaj patetika kao inace kad citam ovakve knjige. Uglavnom meni se svaka knjiga koja ima veze sa tim antickim ratovanjem vazda svidja.

[Rhia]

I really enjoyed reading this book, as it gave another perspective of the Trojan War compared to the Song of Achilles.

[Megan]

I am currently reading The Iliad and so I've had the Trojan War on the brain, and the other day I suddenly remembered this YA fiction novel that I read many, many years ago. I used to have a paperback copy but I must have gotten rid of it at some point. I vaguely recall liking it. But I don't remember enough about it to give it a rating. I'm just adding it to my 'read' shelf.

[Layla ☻]

page 346. PAGE 346.
(less than satisfying read but OH MY GOD THE DEPICTION OF GRIEF DOES THINGS TO ME)

[Kristen Fort]

Um. I thought this would be something I could suggest to students to read if they like the Odyssey, Greek mythology, etc. I may suggest it for a mature student - though marketed as YA, if it were a movie, it would most definitely be PG13, could be R. I didn't need Paris making advances on one of the young female protagonists. I didn't need Boros and his sexual advances or crude, lewd dialogue. The gods and goddesses coming and going and then they're forgotten about as soon as they leave the mortals. And biggest pet peeve has got to be Hera coming to comfort Andromache after Hector's death, telling Andromache that Paris will kill Achilles. Like Hera would give a shit. She was turned down by Paris for that golden apple. She would cause the Trojans much grief on their voyage to establish a new colony. Makes me wonder what version Geras was using as inspiration for her novel. The only thing I liked was the pace of the city destruction. That, Geras got right, or at least, met my expectations. Now, do I be that glutton for punishment and read the Ithaka novel I have somewhere around here? Or do I take a break before reading something potentially as bad?

[Shayla Smith]

This book is different than others i've read about the Iliad. It is told in the point of view of servants. This author does a wonderful job of creating twists in plot and weaving frustration into every chapter. The main characters are loveable and experience the trojan war with the known characters i.e. Helen, Paris, Andronmache, Hector, etc. as backgroud characters rather than the foreground.
I loved this book! it kept my attention through out, this author is very good at writing books with frustrating love triangles and this book reflects that.
I would suggest reading this if you are interested in the story of the trojan war, or just want a good love story.
This book has some violence and mild talk of sexuality. other than that i wouldn't worry about content.

If you like this book you should check out
Goddess of Yesterday by Caroline B. Cooney--another tale of Troy
Ithika by Adele Geras--about what Odysseus's wife is doing while he is away.

[Deb (Readerbuzz) Nance]

I started out a little hesitant about this story. I wasn't sure what I thought about the oh-so-human gods popping into the story, but it gradually wore on me until I really began to love this feature of the book. The characters (Helen, Paris, Hector, Aphrodite, Eros) are mostly familiar to me, though I'm not sure if some of the young people (Marpessa? Xanthe? Alastor?) were present in the original story. It's all well done, I think. The almost-Shakespearean romantic mixups between Marpessa and Alastor and Iason and Xanthe and Polyxena are intriguing and sad and tragic (I don't remember that being part of the original story either, but I could be mistaken) and the ongoing story of the Trojan War is riving. I think I like best how characters suddenly fall in love or act erratically and it's all because of the gods' interferences...certainly would be a good explanation for me for some of the crazy behavior I see in our world. Troy is that dark tragedy that only the Greeks do well.

[Gabrielle]

I intend to reread this book soon, because I read it in (I believe) 8th grade, and remember loving it. It was one of the only school assigned books I enjoyed, and parts of the story have stuck with me until this day.

When I do reread it, I'll update this review/rating, but my 8th grader self demands 5 stars for this for now.

[Desirae]

I read Troy by Adele Geras several years ago, and I remember really enjoying it at the time. Coming back to it now, I found myself having a slightly different reaction. It’s still an enjoyable, perfectly readable retelling of the Trojan War, and there are things about it that I genuinely appreciate, but it also feels very much like a book written more than twenty years ago. The style, tone, and characterization have a distinctly early-2000s feel that makes the novel seem somewhat dated by today’s standards. For me, this ultimately lands at around three stars.

Geras sets the story during the final days of the Trojan War, with Troy having been under siege for nearly ten years. Rather than telling the story primarily through the legendary warriors, she focuses on the people living inside the city and, particularly, the women. At the center are the orphaned sisters Xanthe and Marpessa. Xanthe works in the Blood Room tending to wounded soldiers and also cares for Hector and Andromache’s young son, while Marpessa is a handmaiden to Helen. Marpessa also has the unusual ability to see the gods when they appear among mortals.

The main plot revolves around the sisters and their complicated romantic entanglement with Alastor, a wounded Trojan soldier. Aphrodite, bored with the seemingly endless war, decides to interfere in the lives of the young people around her. Through Eros, she causes both sisters to fall in love with Alastor, creating jealousy and tension between Xanthe and Marpessa. Meanwhile, Xanthe has someone who loves her—her friend Iason, a stablehand—but her attention remains fixed elsewhere.

Alongside this personal drama, the familiar events of the Trojan War unfold. Hector, Achilles, Paris, Helen, Priam, Andromache, and the various gods move through the story, but they are often viewed from the perspective of ordinary people rather than treated as the sole focus. That is probably the most interesting aspect of the book. Geras takes a story we all know and shifts the camera toward the people living in the shadow of the great heroes—the servants, healers, young people, and women who have to endure the consequences of decisions made by kings, princes, gods, and warriors.

I especially liked that perspective. There is something compelling about seeing Troy not simply as the setting for heroic battles, but as an actual city full of people trying to survive. Xanthe is probably the character I found easiest to connect with because of her work caring for the wounded. Marpessa is more mystical and introspective, particularly because of her ability to recognize the gods. Their relationship is really the emotional heart of the novel, and watching Aphrodite's meddling drive a wedge between them gives the story its central conflict.

Where I struggled more was with the characterization and gender roles. Reading this now, it feels very much like a novel from its era. The women generally occupy traditionally feminine spaces while the men occupy traditionally masculine ones, and there isn't much sense of those boundaries being questioned. That doesn't necessarily make the book bad, but it did make the story feel noticeably dated to me.

The writing is fine and the story is readable, but I didn't find myself especially moved or haunted by it this time around. I remember enjoying Troy much more strongly when I first read it, and I think some of that original affection remains. However, rereading it years later, I can also see its limitations much more clearly.

Ultimately, Troy is a solid, accessible retelling of a story that has been told countless times. I like its focus on the women and ordinary citizens of Troy, and I appreciate Geras's attempt to make the familiar mythology feel intimate and human. But while I enjoyed revisiting it, I wouldn't say it left a particularly lasting impression on me.

[Jack Reifert]

Troy was a very strange book to me. I picked the book out of our school library thinking “oh, it might be a cool book about the attack on Troy, action-packed and all that.” I wasn’t expecting all that came from the book, especially the love stories. There was much more “love-making” than I had anticipated (which I thought would have been none). However, it did have some good storytelling, which is why I gave it three out of five stars. On page 240, Marpessa and Alastor talk about an issue after having done “love-making”. The quote I used for my Foster project was “I’m to be wed,” he said, staring at the ground between his knees, and in such a low voice that Marpessa had to lean forward to catch his words. “My mother has arranged for it all to take place in a few days…”. This could be taken as an act of rebellion from Alastor against his mother. His mother was seen as unkind to many, and it is understandable why most would not like her. They also implement stories that were previously made up, like Odysseus traveling back to Ithaca, and the giant Trojan horse used to start the fall of Troy. The Mark of Greatness is also seen throughout the story as the two sisters, Marpessa and Xanthe, can be seen communicating with gods. They also have some dramatic irony, as most know that within the Trojan horse, many Greeks were packed tightly. The characters of the story, however, had no clue of what was in store for them later. I believe that this story is definitely made for the young teen type. I said before that I was expecting this story to be much more action-packed and more adventurous, like some similar books I have read. Perhaps I thought it would be similar to works of the old Greek writers, similar to the Odyssey and stories told way back then. However, I should have read the back summary of the book. I believe that this book was still worth the read, which is why I gave it a three out of five stars rating.

[Kara]

This oddly feels like two completely different retellings of the Iliad smashed into one.

One one hand we have a quite excellent Lower Decks POV of the end of the Trojan War, following the servants and lesser nobles as they assist the main Trojan characters, and we see all the anxiety and pain, followed by tragedy and horror that the ordinary folk of Troy went through.

But on the other hand, we have this story of the gods themselves meddling in the the Iliad, all of them popping up here and there to throw in some magic, meddle with some actions, sport some prophecy, and then vanish, pulling a Men-In-Black memory wipe whenever they exit.

Its maddening to have these two different genres spliced together in a way that doesn't really gel together. Geras should have dumped all the god stuff and just stuck with a really good story about what it means to be an ordinary person trying to survive being a civilian in a war zone.

[Jennifer Cicchetto]

3.75 Stars

[Casey Morrison]

Excellenttt!

[Jenna]

Troy follows a small group of young Trojans as the epic war comes to its conclusion. Major events of the Trojan War are depicted, chiefly from the perspective of these young people. The story is not as epic as I would have expected, with too much emphasis on immature relationships. Also, the dialogue was unnatural at times and did not flow well.
Overall, a decent read but it could have been executed better.

[AmyJag]

Entertaining book. It took a couple of chapters to adjust to the ways it’s written but after that it was very easy to read. I loved the characters of Xanthe and Marpessa and it was fun to see their relationship as sisters evolve. Would recommend to anyone interested in the Trojan War and looking for a light historical fiction read.

[Carrie Slager]

After reading The Song of Troy by Colleen McCullough, Troy by Adèle Geras just pales in comparison. That doesn’t mean it’s a bad book. It just means it isn’t the best book about Troy.

Troy follows the story of Marpessa and Xanthe, two sisters trying to live their lives during the last months of the Trojan War. They’re both three dimensional characters with interesting backgrounds and we get to see them through other characters’ perspectives, but they’re not really all that memorable. There’s nothing that really sets them apart from other characters in fiction, so in my mind, they will always be good characters, but not great ones. For those of you hoping to see the traditional legendary heroes of the Trojan War, you’re going to be disappointed. Achilles, Hector and Odysseus receive practically no page time. However, if you want to read about the lives of those who were forgotten, the lives of the background characters, Troy is perfect for you.

The plot isn’t exactly fast-paced because Troy is more of a character-driven novel, but it isn’t boring either. Adèle Geras has certainly done her research about the Trojan War, but I wouldn’t say that there were any exceptional historical details. Just like in The Iliad, the gods come down from Olympus and interfere with the war, but what’s really annoying is the fact that their warnings are pointless since mortals forget meeting them anyway. What’s the point, besides to foreshadow what most people already know? As I said before, it is a good book, not a great one.

I give this book 3/5 stars.

[Peter Velic]

Adele Geras did an incredible job writing this book. Although it may not have been the most exciting at times, Geras did a very good job in creating characters all intertwined in a very unique romantic situation. She pulls family apart in this book all over a love that, at times, seems very unreliable and almost fails. As the book goes on, the romance between characters start to get quite complicated and the battle between the Greeks and Trojans intensifies greatly. Geras writes the latter half of the book even better than the beginning, adding both subtle and large surprises, while weaving the original story of Troy into her story very, very well. The fact that Geras was able to confine her great work to 340 pages, in the hardcover version, while maintaining not only the drama of the Trojan war, but also being able to captivate readers with both the uniqueness and plot of the main characters was extremely impressive. Not to mention doing all of this while staying very true to the story of this war is phenomenal. However, the book did lack action on the battlefield, and mainly, if not only, included perspectives of the spectators. This could have been easily fixed by Geras, but she chose to only go to the battlefield in very tense parts of the war, not to show the war's progression. Geras also could have shown the perspective of the Greeks more often, leaving you to guess on how the Trojans counterparts felt about their situation during the war and even after. However, the book was still very well written and I recommend it!