Women Studies - 2007 Catalog

Nadine Gordimer

f GET A LIFE

“Timely...provocative...a novel to enjoy and ponder, as its characters all do, the dizzying complications inherent in human choice.”— The Washington Times.

Penguin 208 pp. 978-0-14-303792-7 $14.00 Also of interest: July’s People 978-0-14-006140-6, The Pickup 978-0-14-200142-4, The Conservationist 978-0-14-004716-5, Burger’s Daughter 978-0-14-005593-1, Jump and Other Stories 978-0-14-016534-0, My Son’s Story 978-0-14-015975-2, None to Accompany Me 978-0-14-025039-8, The House Gun 978-0-14-027820-0, Loot and Other Stories 978-0-14-200468-5

Kate Jacobs f THE FRIDAY NIGHT KNITTING CLUB

“An absolutely beautiful, deeply moving portrait of female friendship. You’ll laugh and cry along with these characters, and if you’re like me, you’ll wish you knew how to knit.”— Kristin Hannah, author of Magic Hour. Putnam 352pp. 978-0-399-15409-6 $22.95

Nicola Griffith f ALWAYS

Aud Torvingen—contemporary fiction’s toughest, most emotionally complicated noir hero—returns to confront new adversaries: her own vulnerability and desire. “[Aud] knows how to fight, kill, survive and think.”—Salon. Riverhead 480 pp. 978-1-59448-935-8 $26.95

Cristina Henríquez f COME TOGETHER, FALL APART

A Novella and Stories

“Henríquez’s writing is vibrant, her affecting portraits of Panama’s young women ultimately a celebration of humanity, with all its flaws.”—Texas Monthly. “Only a master can carry a complex sentence as she does...This is powerful writing.”—The Seattle Times. Riverhead 320pp. 978-1-59448-241-0 $14.00

Rayda Jacobs f CONFESSIONS OF A GAMBLER

A Novel of Veils

A riveting portrait of contemporary Muslim life in Cape Town, told through the eyes of a single mother leading a double life—as a pious woman coping with the death of one of her sons to AIDS, and as a gambling addict. Overlook 240pp. 978-1-58567-898-6 $26.95 Available July 2007

South Africa’s Sunday Times Fiction Award

Jane Harris

f THE OBSERVATIONS

“A deliriously captivating tale of sex, ghosts, lies, and mysteries.”—Elizabeth Gilbert. “Harris’s research into the lives of servants in 1862 is impressive, as is her knowledge of the experimental and haphazard treatment of mental illness at the time....[An] accomplished novel.”—The Times Literary Supplement. Penguin 416pp. 978-0-14-311201-3 $14.00 Available August 2007

Diane Johnson L’AFFAIRE “Like Jane Austen, Johnson delights in the worldly rituals surrounding courtship and marriage....She is a philosopher as much as a novelist.”—The New Yorker. Plume 352pp. 978-0-452-28563-7 $14.00 Also of interest: Le Mariage 978-0-452-28226-1, Le Divorce 978-0-452-27733-5, Burning 978-0-452-27983-4, Health and Happiness 978-0-452-28000-7, Lying Low 978-0-452-27945-2, Persian Nights 978-0-452-27958-2

Olga Grushin f THE DREAM LIFE OF SUKHANOV

“Harks back to the great Russian masters [and] breathes new life into American literary fiction.”—Jonathan Yardley, The Washington Post Book World. “Ironic, surreal, sometimes stunning and always chaotic...Gogolesque in its sardonic humor.”—The New York Times. Penguin 368 pp. 978-0-14-303840-5 $14.00 Shortlisted for the Orange Prize; Nominated for the 2006 Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Debut Fiction; A New York Times Notable Book

S. E. Hinton f THE OU TSIDERS

Introduction by Jodi Picoult

The landmark of American fiction, first published in 1967, now in Penguin Classics. Penguin Classics 160pp. 978-0-14-303985-3 $13.00

Hitomi Kanehara f SNAKES AND EARRINGS

Translated by David Karashima

“Elegantly raw and remarkable in its potent simplicity.”—Book Forum. “Teenaged runaway Liu encounters Japan’s youth underground—snakes with earrings—and eventually faces a life-or-death decision.”—Library Journal.

Plume 128pp. 978-0-452-28731-0 $10.00 Winner of the Akutagawa Prize

Tess Uriza Holthe WHEN THE ELEPHANTS DANCE “A powerful tale of the Philippine Islands and a testament to the resilience and courage of the Filipino people.”—San Francisco Chronicle. “Mesmerizing...truly exciting to read.”— The Washington Post. Penguin 384pp. 978-0-14-200288-9 $14.00

Paola Kaufmann f THE SISTER: A Novel of Emily Dickinson

Drawn from journals, documents, and letters from the Dickinson family, this novel shines new light on the reclusive 19th century poet. Overlook 280pp. 978-1-58567-951-5 $24.95

Lynn Harris

f DEATH BY CHICK LIT

A satire of the chick lit craze in which someone is killing off It-Girl writers. “Hilarious.”— Andy Borowitz, author of The Borowitz Report. Berkley 256 pp. 978-0-425-21524-1 $14.00

Jessica Hagedorn

DREAM JUNGLE

“Scrupulously documents its chosen time and place: the Marcos-controlled Philippines of the 1970’s....Dogeaters and Dream Jungle stand together like installments in a single panoramic Philippine historical epic....Masterly.”—The New York Times Book Review. Penguin 336 pp. 978-0-14-200109-7 $14.00 A New York Times Notable Book

A. M. Homes f THIS BOOK WILL SAVE YOUR LIFE

“An absolute masterpiece.”—The Philadelphia Inquirer. “Hilarious...Homes writes in the tradition of Kurt Vonnegut and has the talent to pull it off.”—San Francisco Chronicle.

Penguin 384pp. 978-0-14-303874-0 $14.00 Also of interest: The Mistress’s Daughter, see page 7

Nora Okja Keller

FOX GIRL

“Disturbing, riveting and necessary...the tale of throwaway children and prostitutes stranded in the aftermath of the Korean War.”—Los Angeles Times.

Penguin 320pp. 978-0-14-200196-7 $15.00 Also of interest: Comfort Woman 978-0-14-026335-0

DOGEATERS

“Hagedorn transcends social strata, gender, culture, and politics in this exuberant, witty, and telling portrait.”— The San Diego Union. Penguin 272 pp. 978-0-14-014904-3 $14.00 Also of interest: Charlie Chan Is Dead 2 978-0-14-200390-9

Josephine Humphreys

NOWHERE ELSE ON EARTH “Will fill the void of female voices in the literature of the Civil War and Reconstruction.” —Louise C. Maynor, North Carolina Central University. Penguin 368pp. 978-0-14-100206-4 $15.00 Also of interest: Dreams of Sleep 978-0-14-007787-2, Rich in Love 978-0-14-029610-5, The Fireman’s Fair 978- 0-14-016838-9

Sue Monk Kidd THE MERMAID CHAIR “Kidd draws connections from the feminine to the divine to the erotic that a lesser writer wouldn’t see, and might not have the guts to follow.”—Time magazine. Penguin 368pp. 978-0-14-303669-2 $14.00 Winner of the Quill Award for Fiction

THE SECRET LIFE OF BEES “Inspiring. Sue Monk Kidd is a direct literary descendant of Carson McCullers.”—The Baltimore Sun. “The tale of one motherless daughter’s discovery of what family really means.”— The Washington Post. Penguin 336pp. 978-0-14-200174-5 $14.00 Also of interest: Firstlight, see page 17