Ten top books about silence

Abbie Greaves studied English Literature at Cambridge University. She worked in publishing for three years before leaving to focus on her writing. She now lives in Edinburgh, Scotland.

The Silent Treatment is her first novel.

At the Guardian, Greaves tagged ten books with "one unifying feature:...the way in which readers themselves are made to work harder when confronted with an impenetrable quiet." One title on the list:

The Silence of the Girls by Pat Barker

Barker retells the Iliad primarily from the perspective of Briseis, the woman awarded as a prize to Achilles after the ransacking of Lyrnessus. With the narrative in her hands, there is nowhere to hide from the misogyny of ancient Greece. Ajax may be convinced that “silence becomes a woman”, but it is through Barker’s reclaiming of the voices muted by history that we realise just how much modern resonance these classical stories hold in the #MeToo era.

Read about the other entries on the list.

The Silence of the Girls is among Kris Waldherr's ten favorite books inspired by mythology.

--Marshal Zeringue