Though I spend a lot of my research and writing time in the corseted confines of the Gilded Age, come summer I’m ready to let down my hair and catch a sea breeze by way of the Bronze Age. One of my favorite series to escape into is The Women of Troy (Doubleday) by British author Pat Barker.

The Booker Prize-winning Barker delves deep into the lives of the women of the Iliad starting with Briseis, the Trojan queen captured by Achilles in the first book of the series, The Silence of the Girls.

Briseis plots her revenge in the second book, The Women of Troy, where the Greek warriors have been marooned by the Gods as they await a fair wind for the Aegean.

The third book in the series–The Voyage Home–was released last year, and I’ve been waiting for just the right moment to pick up where I left off with these determined mythic women.

Next week I’m heading home myself and can’t wait to embark on the story of young Ritsa and her unpredictable mistress Cassandra when the enslaved women and their captors finally set sail for various Greek ports.

Sitting on the banks of the Snake River, I’ll imagine I’m at sea wending my way to an unknown land and relish escaping into the past, even if the story is likely to be grimmer than a typical beach read.

What is it that appeals to me about these stories of beleaguered women in a world of violence? Well right off, Barker’s spare, evocative writing is exquisite. Check out these opening lines from The Voyage Home.

“She had yellow eyes. At times, particularly by candlelight, they scarcely looked like human eyes at all. Calchas, the priest, once said they reminded him of a goat’s eyes: that she had the same numbed look of a sacrifice.”

After all these women have sacrificed, I’m hoping this volume will continue to show them gaining ground and coming into their own. For though I have not been a spoil of war, as a woman I’ve often experienced men’s misguided actions in the quest for power. When I read Barker’s novels, I’m buoyed up by the small triumphs of women who have otherwise been abused or forgotten.

This past year I reread the Odyssey. Something I hadn’t done since my high school English teacher, perceiving that I was an exceptionally bookish girl, banished me to the library for the year and told me to read the classics. This time around I was especially intrigued by brave Athena’s story. And, of course, wily Circe’s, as well as that of the long-suffering Penelope. Enough about the violent, irresponsible men. I wanted to know more about the tough, clever women.

Along with packing The Voyage Home for my trip home, I’ll be taking Emily Hauser’s recently released Penelope’s Bones: A History of Homer’s World through the Women Written Out of It (University of Chicago Press). This promises to be a satisfying companion volume to Barker’s feminist retelling of foundational Greek myths.

What can I say? Writing women back into history is this bookish grown girl’s idea of a most excellent beach read.

How about you? What books will you be taking to the beach or the backyard this summer?