Overview

'Our Better Natures is a stunning meditation on hope, its fragile insistence, driven by Sophie Ward's singular wit and astounding philosophical playfulness. It cements Ward's place as one of our most inventive, inquisitive, & alert novelists working today' MARGOT DOUAIHY 'Our Better Natures is potent and beguiling. It makes one see with a better eye' LAURA CARLIN 'Our Better Natures is an absolute marvel - a marvel of ideas, full of intellectual delights; a marvel of construction that propels us toward the most unexpected - and inevitable - outcomes; a marvel of writing, elegant, poised, wise, achingly beautiful at times, but never pulling focus from the stories of the three women and the people around them; and a marvel of compassion. A truly magnificent creation' NANCY CRANE Amid the chaos and political upheaval of 1970s America, three very different women must accept the world as it is, or act to change it. Phyllis Patterson is a housewife in White Plains, Illinois. Her son Jimmy returns to the family home from Vietnam with a Korean wife and two children. Blindsided by these new additions, particularly her curious granddaughter, Soozie, Phyllis's small-town world is turned upside down in more ways than she could have ever imagined. Andrea Dworkin is an activist in Amsterdam. Having fled her abusive husband and their life together, she finds herself desperate for answers, for herself and the world around her. An encounter with Noam Chomsky and Michel Foucault at their infamous Dutch debate provokes her burgeoning independence. Returning to America she will embody a revolution, no matter the price. Muriel Rukeyser is a poet in New York. Despite protestations from her lover, Monica, Muriel insists on campaigning against injustice, using her words as weapons and pushing her body to its limits. In this era of political unrest, Muriel's life stands as a testament to the possibility of creative resistance. A single postcard from an imprisoned writer thousands of miles away will unite these women in the fight for a world they believe in. Full of compassion, imagination and rich storytelling, Our Better Natures is a powerful novel about language, connection and freedom.

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9781472156334

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Reviews

Our Better Natures is an elixir of hard-won inspiration and risky curiosity. Set against the tumult of the 1970s, this taut novel unfolds with elegant precision and vulnerability, examining the inner lives of a poet, a small-town housewife, and an activist all navigating change and choice as their known worlds collapse. Our Better Natures is a stunning meditation on hope, its fragile insistence, driven by Sophie Ward's singular wit and astounding philosophical playfulness. It cements Ward's place as one of our most inventive, inquisitive and alert novelists working today * MARGOT DOUAIHY * Our Better Natures is potent and beguiling. It makes one see with a better eye -- LAURA CARLIN Our Better Natures is an absolute marvel - a marvel of ideas, full of intellectual delights; a marvel of construction that propels us toward the most unexpected - and inevitable - outcomes; a marvel of writing, elegant, poised, wise, achingly beautiful at times, but never pulling focus from the stories of the three women and the people around them; and a marvel of compassion. A truly magnificent creation -- NANCY CRANE Our Better Natures is a triumph of literary empathy, an intellectual adventure connecting Korean immigrants in the US midwest to the activist Andrea Dworkin in Amsterdam to the poet Muriel Rukeyser as she protests the Vietnam war. Sophie Ward miraculously joins each living, breathing dot of this unique novel to build a convincing picture of a turbulent, formative cultural and social moment * RICHARD BEARD * 'Sophie Ward's inventive novel... seamlessly integrates the real private and public lives of Andrea Dworkin and Muriel Rukeyser with the fictional world of Phyllis Patterson... Ward fleshes out her real-life characters with complete conviction, deftly threading their own words into the fabric of her fiction' -- Michael Arditti * Financial Times *

Our Better Natures is an elixir of hard-won inspiration and risky curiosity. Set against the tumult of the 1970s, this taut novel unfolds with elegant precision and vulnerability, examining the inner lives of a poet, a small-town housewife, and an activist all navigating change and choice as their known worlds collapse. Our Better Natures is a stunning meditation on hope, its fragile insistence, driven by Sophie Ward's singular wit and astounding philosophical playfulness. It cements Ward's place as one of our most inventive, inquisitive and alert novelists working today * Margot Douaihy, bestselling author of Scorched Grace, Blessed Water, and Divine Ruin *

Our Better Natures is an elixir of hard-won inspiration and risky curiosity. Set against the tumult of the 1970s, this taut novel unfolds with elegant precision and vulnerability, examining the inner lives of a poet, a small-town housewife, and an activist all navigating change and choice as their known worlds collapse. Our Better Natures is a stunning meditation on hope, its fragile insistence, driven by Sophie Ward's singular wit and astounding philosophical playfulness. It cements Ward's place as one of our most inventive, inquisitive and alert novelists working today * MARGOT DOUAIHY *

Author Information

Sophie Ward is a writer and actor from North London. She is the author of The Schoohouse and Love and Other Thought Experiments, which was longlisted for the Booker Prize.

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