20 Fragments of a Ravenous Youth
'She's no good, that girl. Much too individualistic'
This is the story of Fenfang who, determined to carve out a life more independent than her provincial roots, gets a job as a film extra in Beijing. But living a modern life is not as easy as it looks in this tumultuous, messy city. Grappling with the narrow world of cinema, an outworn Communist regime, and the city's far-from-progressive attitudes to women, charismatic Fenfang finds her true freedom in the one place she never expected.
20 Fragments of a Ravenous Youth is a sparkling and wry coming-of-age story about the changing identity of women in contemporary China.
Meet ten of literature's most iconic heroines, jacketed in bold portraits by female photographers from around the world.
This is the story of Fenfang who, determined to carve out a life more independent than her provincial roots, gets a job as a film extra in Beijing. But living a modern life is not as easy as it looks in this tumultuous, messy city. Grappling with the narrow world of cinema, an outworn Communist regime, and the city's far-from-progressive attitudes to women, charismatic Fenfang finds her true freedom in the one place she never expected.
20 Fragments of a Ravenous Youth is a sparkling and wry coming-of-age story about the changing identity of women in contemporary China.
Meet ten of literature's most iconic heroines, jacketed in bold portraits by female photographers from around the world.
Gigi
'He must know by now, I should think, that I can give as good as I get!'
This is the story of Gigi, educated as a future courtesan in Paris, her days are filled with cigars, lobster, lace and superstitions. Bored and unconvinced by what she's taught, Gigi surprises everyone with her earnest approach to love.
In this classic turn-of-the-century novella, Colette unveils Gigi's journey into womanhood in rich and supple prose.
Meet ten of literature's most iconic heroines, jacketed in bold portraits by female photographers from around the world.
This is the story of Gigi, educated as a future courtesan in Paris, her days are filled with cigars, lobster, lace and superstitions. Bored and unconvinced by what she's taught, Gigi surprises everyone with her earnest approach to love.
In this classic turn-of-the-century novella, Colette unveils Gigi's journey into womanhood in rich and supple prose.
Meet ten of literature's most iconic heroines, jacketed in bold portraits by female photographers from around the world.
I Capture the Castle
Cassandra Mortmain lives with her bohemian and impoverished family in a crumbling castle in the middle of nowhere.
Her journal records her life with her beautiful, bored sister, Rose, her fading glamorous stepmother, Topaz, her little brother Thomas, and her eccentric novelist father who suffers from a financially crippling writer's block.
However, all their lives are turned upside down when the American heirs to the castle arrive and Cassandra finds herself falling in love for the first time.
'I know of few novels that inspire as much fierce lifelong affection in their readers' Joanna Trollope
**One of the BBC's 100 Novels That Shaped Our World**
Her journal records her life with her beautiful, bored sister, Rose, her fading glamorous stepmother, Topaz, her little brother Thomas, and her eccentric novelist father who suffers from a financially crippling writer's block.
However, all their lives are turned upside down when the American heirs to the castle arrive and Cassandra finds herself falling in love for the first time.
'I know of few novels that inspire as much fierce lifelong affection in their readers' Joanna Trollope
**One of the BBC's 100 Novels That Shaped Our World**
Jane Eyre
'Do you think, because I am poor, obscure, plain, and little, I am soulless and heartless? - You think wrong!'
This is the story of Jane, an orphan in Victorian England, she is relentlessly bullied and deprived by her aunt and the charity school she is banished to. Yet Jane emerges from a tragic childhood a curious young woman with an indomitable spirit. When she finds work as a governess at Thornfield Hall it seems Jane has finally met her match in the unconventional Mr Rochester.
But as her feelings for Mr Rochester grow, so do her suspicions that something darker lurks within the walls of this vast mansion... Jane Eyre is the unforgettable Gothic tale of a woman's search for happiness.
Meet ten of literature's most iconic heroines, jacketed in bold portraits by female photographers from around the world.
This is the story of Jane, an orphan in Victorian England, she is relentlessly bullied and deprived by her aunt and the charity school she is banished to. Yet Jane emerges from a tragic childhood a curious young woman with an indomitable spirit. When she finds work as a governess at Thornfield Hall it seems Jane has finally met her match in the unconventional Mr Rochester.
But as her feelings for Mr Rochester grow, so do her suspicions that something darker lurks within the walls of this vast mansion... Jane Eyre is the unforgettable Gothic tale of a woman's search for happiness.
Meet ten of literature's most iconic heroines, jacketed in bold portraits by female photographers from around the world.
Madame Bovary
'She wanted to die, and she wanted to live in Paris.'
This is the story of Emma, trapped in a disappointing marriage with a dull country doctor, she dreams for a life more like the sentimental novels she reads. In an attempt to break from the drab reality of her provincial life in Normandy, Emma takes a lover, and disaster soon follows.
Greedy, delusional and selfish, the character of Emma Bovary scandalised readers from the novel's first publication in 1857, yet her magnetism is undeniable. A landmark work in modern realism, Madame Bovary vibrates with the inner life of a woman hungry for more.
Meet ten of literature's most iconic heroines, jacketed in bold portraits by female photographers from around the world.
This is the story of Emma, trapped in a disappointing marriage with a dull country doctor, she dreams for a life more like the sentimental novels she reads. In an attempt to break from the drab reality of her provincial life in Normandy, Emma takes a lover, and disaster soon follows.
Greedy, delusional and selfish, the character of Emma Bovary scandalised readers from the novel's first publication in 1857, yet her magnetism is undeniable. A landmark work in modern realism, Madame Bovary vibrates with the inner life of a woman hungry for more.
Meet ten of literature's most iconic heroines, jacketed in bold portraits by female photographers from around the world.
My Year of Rest and Relaxation
'When I'd slept enough, I'd be okay. I'd be renewed, reborn.'
This is the story of a woman with no name. Young, thin, pretty, a recent Columbia graduate, she lives in an apartment on the Upper East Side of Manhattan paid for, like everything else, by her inheritance. Yet she longs to lose herself completely.
It's the year 2000 in a city aglitter with wealth and possibility; what could be so terribly wrong? My Year of Rest and Relaxation is a savagely funny novel of a woman looking out from the abyss.
Meet ten of literature's most iconic heroines, jacketed in bold portraits by female photographers from around the world.
This is the story of a woman with no name. Young, thin, pretty, a recent Columbia graduate, she lives in an apartment on the Upper East Side of Manhattan paid for, like everything else, by her inheritance. Yet she longs to lose herself completely.
It's the year 2000 in a city aglitter with wealth and possibility; what could be so terribly wrong? My Year of Rest and Relaxation is a savagely funny novel of a woman looking out from the abyss.
Meet ten of literature's most iconic heroines, jacketed in bold portraits by female photographers from around the world.
Oranges Are Not The Only Fruit
Like most people I lived for a long time with my mother and father. My father liked to watch the wrestling, my mother liked to wrestle.
This is the story of Jeanette, born to be one of God's elect: adopted by a fanatical Pentecostal family and ablaze with her own zeal for the scriptures, she seems perfectly suited for the life of a missionary. But then she converts Melanie, and realises she loves this woman almost as much as she loves the Lord. How on Earth could her Church call that passion Unnatural?
Both a groundbreaking coming-of-age novel and a pioneering work of autofiction, Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit goes beyond facts into the deepest truths. Searing and tender, playful and provocative, it is a portrait of the artist as a young evangelist, re-writing her own Bible.
Meet ten of literature's most iconic heroines, jacketed in bold portraits by female photographers from around the world.
This is the story of Jeanette, born to be one of God's elect: adopted by a fanatical Pentecostal family and ablaze with her own zeal for the scriptures, she seems perfectly suited for the life of a missionary. But then she converts Melanie, and realises she loves this woman almost as much as she loves the Lord. How on Earth could her Church call that passion Unnatural?
Both a groundbreaking coming-of-age novel and a pioneering work of autofiction, Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit goes beyond facts into the deepest truths. Searing and tender, playful and provocative, it is a portrait of the artist as a young evangelist, re-writing her own Bible.
Meet ten of literature's most iconic heroines, jacketed in bold portraits by female photographers from around the world.
Push
'I'm alive inside. A bird is my heart. Mama and Daddy is not win. I'm winning.'
This is the story of Precious, a sixteen-year-old illiterate Black girl who has never been out of Harlem. Pregnant by her own father for the second time, she is kicked out of school and placed in an alternative teaching programme. Through learning to read and write, Precious begins to find her voice, and fight back.
Push is the unflinching diary of a girl whose strength and kindness shines amidst extraordinary adversity.
Meet ten of literature's most iconic heroines, featuring bold portraits by female photographers from around the world.
This is the story of Precious, a sixteen-year-old illiterate Black girl who has never been out of Harlem. Pregnant by her own father for the second time, she is kicked out of school and placed in an alternative teaching programme. Through learning to read and write, Precious begins to find her voice, and fight back.
Push is the unflinching diary of a girl whose strength and kindness shines amidst extraordinary adversity.
Meet ten of literature's most iconic heroines, featuring bold portraits by female photographers from around the world.
We Need New Names
'There are times, though, that no matter how much food I eat, I find the food does nothing for me, like I am hungry for my country and nothing is going to fix that'
This is the story of Darling, uprooted from her family home by paramilitary police, and living in a Zimbabwean shanty called Paradise. Despite the turmoil, she revels in mischief and adventures with her friends, like stealing guavas from the rich neighbourhood, and singing Lady Gaga at the top of her voice.
But when Darling has a chance to forge a different life in America, she realises that this new paradise brings its own set of challenges. In We Need New Names a spirited girl grows into a powerful observer of global identity.
Meet ten of literature's most iconic heroines, jacketed in bold portraits by female photographers from around the world.
This is the story of Darling, uprooted from her family home by paramilitary police, and living in a Zimbabwean shanty called Paradise. Despite the turmoil, she revels in mischief and adventures with her friends, like stealing guavas from the rich neighbourhood, and singing Lady Gaga at the top of her voice.
But when Darling has a chance to forge a different life in America, she realises that this new paradise brings its own set of challenges. In We Need New Names a spirited girl grows into a powerful observer of global identity.
Meet ten of literature's most iconic heroines, jacketed in bold portraits by female photographers from around the world.
White Chrysanthemum
'Look for your sister after each dive. Never forget. If you see her, you are safe.'
This is the story of Hana and her little sister Emi, who are part of an island community of haenyo, women who make their living from free diving off the southernmost tip of Korea. One day Hana sees a Japanese soldier heading for where Emi is guarding the day's catch on the beach. Saving her sister, Hana herself is captured and forced to become a "comfort woman" in a Japanese military brothel.
Moving between Hana in 1943 and Emi as an elderly woman today, White Chrysanthemum sheds light on a devastating history - and how the bond of sisterhood is strong enough to endure the evils of war.
Meet ten of literature's most iconic heroines, jacketed in bold portraits by female photographers from around the world.
This is the story of Hana and her little sister Emi, who are part of an island community of haenyo, women who make their living from free diving off the southernmost tip of Korea. One day Hana sees a Japanese soldier heading for where Emi is guarding the day's catch on the beach. Saving her sister, Hana herself is captured and forced to become a "comfort woman" in a Japanese military brothel.
Moving between Hana in 1943 and Emi as an elderly woman today, White Chrysanthemum sheds light on a devastating history - and how the bond of sisterhood is strong enough to endure the evils of war.
Meet ten of literature's most iconic heroines, jacketed in bold portraits by female photographers from around the world.