A Short History of Women - Softcover

Walbert, Kate

Softcover

ISBN 10: 141659499X ISBN 13: 9781416594994

Publisher: Simon Spotlight Entertainment, 2010

Synopsis

NOMINATED FOR THE LOS ANGELES TIMES BOOK PRIZE
A profoundly moving portrait of the complicated legacies of mothers and daughters, A Short History of Women chronicles five generations of women from the close of the nineteenth century through the early years of the twenty-first.

Beginning in 1914 at the deathbed of Dorothy Trevor Townsend, a suffragette who starves herself for the cause, the novel traces the echoes of her choice in the stories of her descendants--a brilliant daughter who tries to escape the burden of her mother's infamy; a granddaughter who chooses a conventional path, only to find herself disillusioned; a great-granddaughter who wryly articulates the free-floating anxiety of post-9/11 Manhattan. In a kaleidoscope of characters and with a richness of imagery, emotion, and wit, A Short History of Women is a thought-provoking and vividly original narrative that crisscrosses a century--a book for "any woman who has ever struggled to find her own voice; to make sense of being a mother, wife, daughter, and lover" (Associated Press).

About this title

Review:

"What a marvelous book: one part Transit of Venus, one part Stone Diaries, one part incomparable. Actually, that's not true: she write like a female Ian McEwan."--Stacy Schiff, Pulitzer-Prize winning author of A Great Improvisation: Franklin, France, and the Birth of America

"Wickedly smart . . . A gorgeously wrought and ultimately wrenching work of art."
--Leah Hager Cohen, New York Times Book Review (cover review)

"Ambitious and impressive . . . Reminiscent of a host of innovative writers from Virginia Woolf to Muriel Spark to Pat Barker . . . A witty and assured testament to the women's movement and women writers, obscure and renowned."--Washington Post

"A subtle and profound book, as thought-provoking as it is moving."
--Ann Packer, author of The Dive From Clausen's Pier

About the Author:

Kate Walbert is the author of six previous books of fiction: His Favorites; The Sunken Cathedral; A Short History of Women, a New York Times Book Review ten best books of the year and finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize; Our Kind, a National Book Award finalist; The Gardens of Kyoto; and the story collection Where She Went. Her work has appeared in The New Yorker, The Paris Review, The Best American Short Stories, and The O. Henry Prize stories. She lives with her family in New York City.

About this edition

• Publisher: Simon Spotlight Entertainment
• Publication date: 2010
• ISBN 10: 141659499X
• ISBN 13: 9781416594994
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 256