Books by Pat Barker
“It’s one of the classics of WW1 literature. Dr Rivers specialises in shellshock. A lot of the methods they used on the soldiers returning seriously disturbed from their time at the front are, to our minds now, barbaric. It was just: shout at them until they behave. But what Dr Rivers was trying is much more recognisably modern, more like talk therapy. The book is a little bit about his relationship with his patients, in particular with Siegfried Sassoon. It’s a good story, she’s an incredible writer—I mean, at a granular level, she uses punctuation really interestingly, and her dialogue feels incredibly vivid. I learned a lot about how to write historical fiction from this book.” Read more...
The Best First World War Novels
Alice Winn, Novelist
The Silence of the Girls: A Novel
by Pat Barker
Hailed as a “feminist Iliad”, this newest novel from Pat Barker, author of the much-lauded Regeneration trilogy, has been hard to miss. In the year since its publication, it's been shortlisted for the Women's Prize for Fiction as well as the Costa Novel Award, and has won an Indie Bookshop Week Award.
The Silence of the Girls has been recommended multiple times on Five Books—an unusual feat for a book that isn't yet several decades (or even several hundred years) old. Choosing the novel as one of the best she's read lately, novelist Daisy Johnson—whose book Everything Under was shortlisted for the Booker Prize—remarked, “The Silence of the Girls is a retelling of the Iliad and is entirely devastating.”
Interviews where books by Pat Barker were recommended
Five of the Best Feminist Historical Novels, recommended by Flora Carr
In recent years there has been a boom in fiction that reimagines stories of the past—tales that have traditionally been told by men—through female eyes. Here, the writer Flora Carr recommends five of the best feminist historical novels, and reflects on the role of historical fiction in enhancing our understanding of the past.
The Best Classics Books for Teenagers, recommended by Olly Murphy
Caesar, Cicero, Achilles, Socrates, Plato: millennia later, we still talk about them. Olly Murphy, classics teacher at Wycombe Abbey, one of England’s top girls’ schools, recommends books and explains why classics remains one of the most exciting subjects for teenagers to study.
The Best First World War Novels, recommended by Alice Winn
There are dozens of novels about the First World War, many of them well worth your time. Here, Alice Winn—author of In Memoriam, a bestselling story of forbidden love between two young soldiers—selects five of the very best, including autobiographical fiction by former officers and historical novels that bring humanity to the horror of the Great War.
