A disturbing tale about a young university student who loses herself in a destructive relationship, The River Ophelia will provoke, sadden and engage. Unconventional, compelling and controversial, this postmodern account of domestic violence deservedly became an instant best-seller making its author a household name. Justine loves Sade but Sade loves sex; indeed, he's a brutish sex addict. Despite this, Justine can't seem to leave: for all her education, she's looking for love and commitment in all the wrong places. While the feminist lore of previous generations seems to work well in theory, Justine can't seem to make it work in practise. Owning her power and experimenting with her own sexuality only leaves her feeling more empty and despairing than before. Both a parodic homage to and subversion of de Sade's Justine and Shakespeare's Hamlet, Justine Ettler's second novel recalls the work of Kathy Acker and Bret Easton Ellis. A dark anti-romance whose sparse, Spartan prose sparks with all the suspenseful chill of a thriller, this twentieth century classic of Australian literature is an electric, confronting read.

Catherine Bell, a famous concert pianist, is struggling to hold on to her career in a competitive international arena that spans the classical music capitals of the world. After a disastrous show in Copenhagen, Cathy is about to attempt her first concert performance without alcohol in Prague when her marriage implodes, her terminally ill, Czech-born mother goes missing from her London hospital, and a much needed highly paid recording deal falls through. Cathy finds herself coping in the only way she knows how: grasping a glass of forbidden pre-performance champagne and flirting with Tomas, a stranger in a Prague nightclub. While her therapist Nelly advises her to abstain, Cathy's relationship with drink, and Tomas, draws her deep into a whirlpool of events as mysterious, tense and seductive as Prague itself. Justine Ettler's discipline in the writing is as controlled as Cathy is out of control – the novel brilliantly references classics such as Wuthering Heights – and as with Rachel in The Girl on a Train the reader is drawn into the protagonist's predicament with moving, palpable intensity. Bohemia Beach is an edge of your seat ride, a compelling story of addiction, passionate love and the power of art. It heralds the return of one of Australia's most distinctive authors. ‘Ettler is back after twenty years and the wait has been worth it. This is a mesmerising story of art and addiction – the author at her provocative best.’ Nikki Gemmell

#1 New York Times Bestseller The groundbreaking work that poses one of the most provocative questions of a generation: what is happening to the selves of adolescent girls? As a therapist, Mary Pipher was becoming frustrated with the growing problems among adolescent girls. Why were so many of them turning to therapy in the first place? Why had these lovely and promising human beings fallen prey to depression, eating disorders, suicide attempts, and crushingly low self-esteem? The answer hit a nerve with Pipher, with parents, and with the girls themselves. Crashing and burning in a “developmental Bermuda Triangle,” they were coming of age in a media-saturated culture preoccupied with unrealistic ideals of beauty and images of dehumanized sex, a culture rife with addictions and sexually transmitted diseases. They were losing their resiliency and optimism in a “girl-poisoning” culture that propagated values at odds with those necessary to survive. Told in the brave, fearless, and honest voices of the girls themselves who are emerging from the chaos of adolescence, Reviving Ophelia is a call to arms, offering important tactics, empathy, and strength, and urging a change where young hearts can flourish again, and rediscover and reengage their sense of self.

A mother’s secret past and her daughter’s present collide in this richly atmospheric novel from the acclaimed author of The Animals at Lockwood Manor. In the summer of 1973, Ruth and her four friends were obsessed with pre-Raphaelite paintings—and a little bit obsessed with each other. Drawn to the cold depths of the river by Ruth’s house, the girls pretend to be the drowning Ophelia, with increasingly elaborate tableaus. But by the end of that fateful summer, real tragedy finds them along the banks. Twenty-four years later, Ruth returns to the suffocating, once grand house she grew up in, the mother of young twins and seventeen-year-old Maeve. Joining the family in the country is Stuart, Ruth’s childhood friend, who is quietly insinuating himself into their lives and gives Maeve the attention she longs for. She is recently in remission, unsure of her place in the world now that she is cancer-free. Her parents just want her to be an ordinary teenage girl. But what teenage girl is ordinary? Alternating between the two fateful summers, The Ophelia Girls is a suspense-filled exploration of mothers and daughters, illicit desire, and the perils and power of being a young woman.

“The collection you hold in your hands is otherworldly, it is elegant, it is delicate. It is graceful, it is exquisite and ethereal. It is full of flowers and fairies and a piercing, thorny longing.” —from the introduction by Catherynne M. Valente A Mythopoeic Award finalist Songs for Ophelia gathers together eighty of Theodora Goss's otherworldly poems which lead the reader, as though under a spell, through the unfolding of the seasons and into the realm of pure magic. "Willows, dancing maidens, gypsies, mothers, lovers, daughters, magic animals, living waters, and transformations of all kinds abound in these gorgeous poems. With her formal prosody, her fairytale subjects, and her insights on love and loss and longing, Goss manages, Janus-like, to look back to the Victorians and inward at the heart of a modern woman with intelligence and grace." —Delia Sherman Cover art by Virginia Lee

The study emphasizes the role of the arts and humanities in the re-plotting of gender and also links cultural production to political circumstances, specifically to the end of the Franco dictatorship and the transitional to a new democracy in Spain. The inclusion of both the visual art of Marina Núnez and art photographs as well as literary authors and dramatists offers views of overarching motifs in the cultural production of Spain. The book includes an historical component, with an analysis of works by major nineteenth and early twentieth-century Spanish poets, including Espronceda, Bécquer, Villaspesas, Lorca, and the pioneer female author Blanca de los Rios. The list of writers from the 1970s forward includes both highly recognized figures, Clara Janés, María Victoria Atencia, Eduardo Quiles and an extensive group of important writers less recognized beyond among critics.

"Previously published in the anthology Performed the here and now: an introduction to contemporary theater and performance edited by Chris Danowski ... and also in the independent literary journal CallReview (issue #2, 2004)"--T.p. verso.

Adult love story which is set in a world of inner-city grunge bars and clubs, kinky sex, drug-taking and desperation. It is an explicit account of sexual obsession and violence which explores the uncharted waters of female desire.

New York Times Bestseller * USA Today Bestseller* Los Angeles Times Bestseller * Publishers Weekly Bestseller A guide to wisdom, authenticity, and bliss for women as they age by the author of Reviving Ophelia. Women growing older contend with ageism, misogyny, and loss. Yet as Mary Pipher shows, most older women are deeply happy and filled with gratitude for the gifts of life. Their struggles help them grow into the authentic, empathetic, and wise people they have always wanted to be. In Women Rowing North, Pipher offers a timely examination of the cultural and developmental issues women face as they age. Drawing on her own experience as daughter, sister, mother, grandmother, caregiver, clinical psychologist, and cultural anthropologist, she explores ways women can cultivate resilient responses to the challenges they face. “If we can keep our wits about us, think clearly, and manage our emotions skillfully,” Pipher writes, “we will experience a joyous time of our lives. If we have planned carefully and packed properly, if we have good maps and guides, the journey can be transcendent.”

A poignant novel about infatuation, class, and obligation.