Bear Woman: The brand-new memoir from one of Sweden's bestselling authors

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For readers of Rachel Cusk, Lisa Taddeo and the essays of Zadie Smith, Bear Woman is a beautifully wrought memoir from one of Sweden's bestselling authors

A beautifully written and astonishing memoir of a woman - a writer - in the midst of motherhood, marriage and life.

While struggling with the demands of family and career, the writer discovers a figure from history, Marguerite de la Rocque, a sixteenth-century noblewoman who was abandoned, pregnant, on a remote island in Nova Scotia. When she is finally rescued, her lover and her baby have died, but she has survived this inhospitable wilderness, alone, for two long years. It's a remarkable story of survival, but one that has been consigned to a footnote.

Delving deeper into Marguerite's hidden life, the writer begins to question her ability to tell this story, the story of any women in history - or even her own.

'The deeply personal journey of a writer, surprising and illuminating, and for me, familiar in the most reassuring way as she loses herself in this compelling story' - Esther Freud, author of Hideous Kinky

Reviews

''The deeply personal journey of a writer, surprising and illuminating, and for me, familiar in the most reassuring way as she loses herself in this compelling story'' - Esther Freud, author of Hideous Kinky

'Ramqvist, in Vogel's translation, is a master of finely observed detail and this book - with a slow-burn obsession at its heart - captivated me. Rarely have I found a book so gentle but enthralling in its telling, so able to distill the subtle turbulence of womanhood, motherhood, and the writer's life.' - Jessica J. Lee, author of Two Trees Make a Forest

'Ramqvist skillfully blends a story of survival with an autofictional meditation on womanhood ... It adds up to a careful study of a woman's writing life.' - Publishers Weekly

'Karolina Ramqvist writes with frosty precision the kind of literature that is unforgettable. Her portraits of women hit deep into bone and marrow.' - Dorthe Nors on The White City

Author Bio

Karolina Ramqvist (Author)

Karolina Ramqvist is one of the most influential Swedish writers and feminists of her generation. In 2015 she was awarded the prestigious P. O. Enquist Literary Prize for her novel The White City.