Unpicking the stitches of gender and genre, the stories in this searing, funny, haunting debut explore how our ideas of womanhood shape us, and what they cost us.
'My God darling - the women I know.'
A young woman tries to cheat her algorithm, creating a wholesome online persona while her 'real' life dissipates. A grandmother speaks to her granddaughter through the fog of generations. Two lovers divide over alternative meat options. A factory worker fits eyes in companion dolls until she is called on to install her own.
The women I know are sharp, absurd, sly, wrong, wry, repressed, hungry, horny, bold, envious, dominating, uncertain, overdetermined, underpaid, bored, smart, crystalizing, themselves.
A burning talent with growing international recognition, Katerina Gibson's work has appeared in Granta, Kill Your Darlings, Overland and elsewhere. She is the Pacific regional winner of the 2021 Commonwealth Short Story Prize and recipient of the Felix Meyer Scholarship.
This collection of short stories by our very own Katerina Gibson is at times startling, funny, dark, and always clever. We’re so lucky to have this superstar on our team here at The Sun Bookshop, recently announced as winner of The Christina Stead Prize and was named one of The Sydney Morning Herald’s Best Young Australian Novelists and an all-round brilliant person.
The stories weave together complex portraits of women living in contemporary society and its dizzying walk between isolation and connection. We follow a young woman cheating her algorithm, creating a wholesome online personal while her ‘real’ life dissipates; two lovers divide over alternative meat options; a factory worker fits eyes in companion dolls until she is called on to install her own.
Playful with genre and language and driven by an imaginative, probing mind, the collection has arresting insights into the modern world. The stories feel fresh, inquisitive and always captivating: you’ll be speeding along to the finish.
