International Women's Day is on 8th March so I thought this would be a good opportunity to recommend some of the fantastic fiction I have read over the past 12 months about women and their stories. A common theme here is oppression of and discrimination against women (both contemporary and historical) and the characters in these novels are all likeable, feisty women determined to break free from the roles society has cast them in. They provide food for thought and a chance to reflect on these issues whilst also being hugely enjoyable reads.
The Girl With The Louding Voice, by Abi Dare
This highly readable, page turner of a novel which I devoured in just a couple of sittings tells the story of Adunni, a 14 year old girl from a rural Nigerian village who longs for an education. The story begins by describing the poverty of her family and then she is sold: first as a bride to become the third wife of a middle aged man; and then into slavery as a domestic servant, so it is not always a comfortable read as it brings home the many ways that women are oppressed in Nigerian society. However there are also tender and joyful moments in what is ultimately an uplifting story of a girl who refuses to let herself be silenced and oppressed. Some readers might be put off by the dialect the book is written in but within a couple of pages your ear becomes attuned and it is like being there beside Adunni, completely part of the immersive experience of the book. SO good.
American Dirt, by Jeanine Cummins
American Dirt is an explosive page turner that reads like a thriller and kept me completely hooked from beginning to end. I was initially pulled in by the quote on the cover from Ann Patchett : 'I couldn't put it down. I'll never stop thinking about it.' ; and I am able to report that this is not hyperbole - this really is the case for me as well! It tells the story of Lydia, a bookshop owner from Acapulco, as she goes on the run from a local drug cartel attempting to escape to the USA with her eight year old son. It is one of those books that leaves you a little wrung out emotionally when you finish it as I was often moved to tears or had my heart racing in fear. It is well researched and well written and leaves the reader horrified at conditions faced by migrants trying to reach the USA, hardships and difficulties often exacerbated by the fact that the protagonist is a woman. This is a fantastic novel that left me thinking about Lydia and her son long after I had finished reading.
A Room Made of Leaves, by Kate Grenville
Kate Grenville is one of my favourite authors (you can read more recommendations of her work here :
http://thisreadingmummy.blogspot.com/2017/01/must-read-australian-booklist-for.html) so I was very excited to read her latest offering, another historical novel set in eighteenth century Sydney as Australia is being established as a British colony. The novel, based on real events and real people, tells the story of Elizabeth Macarthur, the wife of John Macarthur a British Army Officer often recognised as the 'father' of the Australian wool industry. Aged just 21, Elizabeth accompanies her new husband to the newly founded penal colony and we follow her as she carves out a life for herself on the other side of the globe with a husband she quickly realises that she does not love. Elizabeth is a spirited, likeable and fiercely independent woman who works hard to break free of the shackles placed on her by the expectations of eighteenth century society and exacerbated by the male dominated world of the penal colony. This is a lovely read, beautifully evocative of time and place, and you leave it feeling that you have gained a friend in Elizabeth. She is a woman famous for being the wife of her husband but this novel shows her as so much more than that - as a person with her own story.
The Mercies is another historical novel, this time set in seventeenth century Norway. It begins with a terrifying storm (a real event that occurred on 24th December 1617) that kills almost the entire male population of Vardo, an island in the far north of Norway, deep inside the arctic circle. The rest of the novel is an absorbing account of how the women left behind learn to cope firstly with life without their men and then with the subsequent arrival of a new governor who has come to enforce new sorcery laws and ends up leading a witchhunt. This is a fascinating and terrifying novel which completely transports the reader to another time and place, and a more detailed review can be read here:
http://thisreadingmummy.blogspot.com/2020/03/book-review-mercies-by-kiran-millwood.html
What novels highlighting women and their struggles against oppression and inequality would you add to this list?
