Pat Barker

LA GUERRA DE TROYA FUE SIEMPRE LA GUERRA DE LAS MUJERES.Helena y su inigualable belleza, que resultó ser solo un hueso que los perros rabiosos se disputan; Casandra, cuyas profecías nadie atiende a menos que un varon las enuncie; la obcecada Amina, con la mirada fija en las ruinas, decidida a vengar la muerte de su rey; Hecuba aullando de dolor en la silenciosa orilla, como si sus gritos pudieran alcanzar los pasillos del Hades y despertar a los muertos; y Briseida, que lleva en su vientre al hijo del heroe caido... ¡Ay, las mujeres de Troya, atrapadas de nuevo en la ciega lucha de los hombres!Una mirada magistral desde la perspectiva de las no combatientes; una novela memorable y poderosa sobre el mas grande de los mitos griegos por la autora de El silencio de las mujeres.Troya ha caido. Los griegos han ganado su amarga guerra. Ahora solo necesitan un buen viento para levantar velas y regresar victoriosos a casa. Pero los vengativos dioses mantienen el mar en contra, por lo que los guerreros permanecen en el limbo, acampados a la sombra de la ciudad que destruyeron, acompañados por las mujeres que raptaron. En la Iliada, esa oda a la destruccion causada por la agresion masculina, las mujeres son el objeto a traves del cual los hombres luchan entre si para afirmar su estatus. Las diosas siempre tienen algo que decir, pero las mortales suelen permanecer en silencio y si hablan es solo para lamentarse: por la caida de Troya, por sus hijos, padres y esposos muertos, y por su propia libertad, tomada a la fuerza tanto por los vencedores como por los vencidos. The Guardian

Londres 1918. La Primera Guerra Mundial parece no tener fin. Los soldados siguen muriendo por centenares de miles en las trincheras. Y mientras cada vez son más los que se rebelan y optan por el pacifismo, mayor es tambien la represion y el rechazo social hacia los que apuestan por la paz y en contra de un patriotismo ciego que solo acepta la destruccion del enemigo. Billy Prior trabaja para el Servicio de Inteligencia del Ministerio de Municiones. Pero sus encuentros en privado con mujeres y hombres -pacifistas, objetores de conciencia, homosexuales- entran en conflicto con sus obligaciones como soldado. Incapaz de hacer frente a sus contradicciones, Billy sufre un colapso y visita al hombre que le ayudo en otra ocasion, el psiquiatra militar William Rivers. Prior tiene que hacer frente a su incapacidad para ser el soldado que sus superiores esperan de el y a la complejidad de los intereses y sentimientos que siempre entran en juego en una guerra. Ganadora del Guardian Fiction Prize, El ojo en la puerta forma parte de la trilogia Regeneracion considerada por muchos como un monumento literario al trasfondo humano que queda oculto tras cualquier conflicto armado.

Qual e la ragione che spinge un ragazzino di appena dieci anni a commettere un crimine assurdo? È questa la domanda sottesa a "Labili confini". Danny Miller ha appunto dieci anni quando entra nella casa di una vicina per rubacchiare qualcosa. La vecchietta torna all'improvviso e lui la spinge giu per le scale e la soffoca con un cuscino. Tredici anni dopo, Danny esce di prigione con una nuova identita e si mette alla ricerca dello psicologo che ha contribuito alla sua condanna giudicandolo capace di intendere e di volere.

'The year is now 1918 . . . In the climate of exhaustion and hysteria amid which the war is wearing to its close, pressures to fall into line become fierce and take ugly forms. At the forefront of her story, Barker places figures especially menaced by this: pacifists, conscientious objectors and homosexuals . . . a sequel every bit as unwaveringly intense and intelligent as its predecessor' Peter Kemp, Sunday Times

From the Booker Prize-winning author of Regeneration and one of our greatest contemporary writers on war comes a reimagining of the most famous conflict in literature - the legendary Trojan War. When her city falls to the Greeks, Briseis's old life is shattered. She is transformed from queen to captive, from free woman to slave, awarded to the god-like warrior Achilles as a prize of war. And she's not alone. On the same day, and on many others in the course of a long and bitter war, innumerable women have been wrested from their homes and flung to the fighters. The Trojan War is known as a man's story: a quarrel between men over a woman, stolen from her home and spirited across the sea. But what of the other women in this story, silenced by history? What words did they speak when alone with each other, in the laundry, at the loom, when laying out the dead? In this magnificent historical novel, Pat Barker charts one woman's journey through the chaos of the most famous war in history, as she struggles to free herself and to become the author of her own story. Praise for Pat Barker: 'Barker delves unflinchingly into the enduring mysteries of human motivation' Sunday Telegraph 'She is not only a fine chronicler of war but of human nature' Independent 'Barker is a writer of crispness and clarity and an unflinching seeker of the germ of what it means to be human' Herald 'You go to her for plain truths, a driving storyline and a clear eye, steadily facing the history of our world' Guardian

When war breaks out in 1914, Paul Tarrant, a student at the Slade School of Art, leaves behind his attempted life as an artist and his beautiful fellow-student Elinore to tend to casualties on the front line. His life as a volunteer for the Belgian Red Cross is a world away from his days at the Slade, yet at times he canâ t help but think of the life-drawing room as he nurses the mutilated, dying bodies of French and German soldiers. Paulâ s feelings for Elinore are complicated by her contact with another fellow-student, Kit, who has been posted to a neighbouring field station, and by a visit from Elinore herself, who travels out to meet Paul in France before bombs force her to escape back to London. The longer Paul remains in Ypres, increasingly affected by the work he has to carry out, the greater the distance between him and Elinore becomes.

Paul Tarrant, Elinor Brooke and Kit Neville first met in 1914 at the Slade School of Art, before their generation lost hope, faith and much else besides on the battlefields of Ypres and the Somme. Now it is 1940, they are middle-aged, and another war has begun. London is a haunted city. Some have even turned to seances in an attempt to contact lost loved ones. As the bombs fall and Elinor and the others struggle to survive, old temptations and obsessions return, and all of them are forced to make choices about what they really want...

In May 2005 Penguin will publish 70 unique titles to celebrate the company's 70th birthday. The titles in the Pocket Penguins series are emblematic of the renowned breadth of quality of the Penguin list and will hark back to Penguin founder Allen Lane's vision of good books for all.

When Siegfried Sassoon publicly proclaims that the war is being needlessly prolonged, the authorities declare him mentally unsound and send him to Doctor Rivers at Craiglockhart war hospital, where he is charged with making Sassoon 'see sense and return to the front'. Whilst in his care Sassoon meets a young and timid poet, Wilfred Owen, and a working class officer named Prior who, through shock or possibly choice, has lost the ability to speak.

Pat Barker sets her ninth novel in a post-9/11 world in which two men, a writer and a photographer, return to England from New York, devastated by their experiences. Ben, the writer, is later killed covering the war in Afghanistan; Stephen divorces his unfaithful wife, quits his job, and retires to the countryside in search of solitude in which to write a book. But then Ben's widow enters his life.

When Tom Seymour, a child psychologist, plunges into a river to save a young man from drowning, he unwittingly reopens a chapter from his past he'd hoped to forget. For Tom already knows Danny Miller. When Danny was ten Tom helped imprison him for the killing of an old woman. Now out of prison with a new identity, Danny has some questions - questions he thinks only Tom can answer. Reluctantly, Tom is drawn back into Danny's old world - a place where the border between good and evil, innocence and guilt is blurred and confused. But when Danny's demands on Tom become extreme, Tom wonders whether he has crossed a line of his own - and in crossing it, can he ever go back?