FORMIDABLE WOMEN: After Sappho and We That Are Young

Formiddable Women.jpg
Formiddable Women.jpg

FORMIDABLE WOMEN: After Sappho and We That Are Young

£16.00

Wrapped copies of two acclaimed novels by two sensational prize-winning writers: Preti Taneja and Selby Wynn Schwartz, with We that are young and After Sappho.

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‘Revelatory. Urgent and irresistible. … One of the most exquisite and original novels of the year.’ —The Sunday Times, on We that are young

‘A glorious, genre-expanding work of fiction... Spell-binding.’ —The Guardian, on After Sappho


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WE THAT ARE YOUNG

WINNER OF THE 2018 DESMOND ELLIOTT PRIZE | SHORTLISTED FOR THE JAN MICHALSKI PRIZE | SHORTLISTED FOR THE REPUBLIC OF CONSCIOUSNESS PRIZE | LONGLISTED FOR THE JHALAK PRIZE

JIVAN SINGH, the bastard scion of the Devraj family, returns to his childhood home after a long absence – only to witness the unexpected resignation of the ageing patriarch from the vast corporation he founded, the Devraj Company. On the same day, Sita, Devraj’s youngest daughter, absconds – refusing to submit to the marriage her father wants for her. Meanwhile, Radha and Gargi, Sita’s older sisters, are handed the Company… And so begins a brutal, deathly struggle for power, ranging over the luxury hotels and spas of New Delhi and Amritsar, the Palaces and slums of Napurthala, to Srinagar, Kashmir. 

Told in astonishing prose – a great torrent of words and imagery – We that are young is a modern-day King Lear that bursts with energy and fierce, beautifully measured rage. Set against the backdrop of the anti-corruption riots in 2011–2012, it provides startling insights into modern India, the clash of youth and age, the hectic pace of life in one of the world’s fastest growing economies – and the ever-present spectre of death. More than that, this is a novel about the human heart. And its breaking point.

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AFTER SAPPHO

LONGLISTED FOR THE 2022 BOOKER PRIZE | SHORTLISTED FOR THE 2023 JAMES TAIT BLACK MEMORIAL PRIZE | SHORTLISTED FOR THE 2023 ORWELL PRIZE FOR FICTION

“What did we want? To begin with, we wanted what half the population had got by just being born.” 

IT’S 1895. Amid laundry and bruises, Rina Pierangeli Faccio gives birth to the child of the man who raped her – and who she has also been forced to marry. Unbroken, she determines to change her name; and her life, alongside it.

1902. Romaine Brooks sails for Capri. She has barely enough money for the ferry, nothing for lunch; her paintbrushes are bald and clotted… But she is sure she can sell a painting – and is fervent in her belief that the island is detached from all fates she has previously suffered.

… In 1923, Virginia Woolf writes: I want to make life fuller – and fuller.

Told in a series of cascading vignettes, featuring a multitude of voices, After Sappho is Selby Wynn Schwartz’s joyous reimagining of the lives of a brilliant group of feminists, sapphists, artists and writers in the late 19th and early 20th century as they battle for control over their lives; for liberation and for justice. 

Sarah Bernhard – Colette – Eleanora Duse – Lina Poletti – Josephine Baker – Virginia Woolf… these are just a few of the women (some famous, others hitherto unsung) sharing the pages of a novel as fierce as it is luminous. Lush and poetic; furious and funny; in After Sappho, Selby Wynn Schwartz has created a novel that celebrates the women and trailblazers of the past – and also offers hope for our present, and our futures.

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