House of Women

(Paperback)

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Description

A dreamy fable of a mother and daughter forced apart, and of their relations with their men. 'The rule is this: I am to pretend that my other life does not exist.' Seventeen year-old Thea lives with her mother Natalia, a bitter and fading diva, in tranquil but tense retreat from the world of men. Raised to know that men are devils, growing up sheltered in their idyllic house, Thea is both fearful and insolent, curious and naive, not sure whether she should feel privileged or stifled by her odd existence. But her innocence is shattered when the Syrian, a rich and powerful cousin of her father to whom she has been promised, walks into her home and her life like a divine power. Plucking her out of her cocoon, he traces his finger across her skin, dresses her in a new bride's finery, and sails her off to his island where she discovers a different kind of imprisonment...Deeply enigmatic, sensous and thrilling, House of Women is a searing story of mothers and daughters, of ties that bind, of prisons we choose to live inside and those chosen for us. It is both a deeply haunting fable and a delightful, enchanting piece of escapism.

Reviews

'Reading Lynn Freed's House of Women, I was subjected to feelings I remember from first reading the classics when I was young: sensations of familiarity and strangeness conjoined. Like certain classics, Freed's novel is surprising and inevitable, often in the same sentence. It illuminates and, at the same time, deepens the human mystery. I don't ask for more from a book.' Michael Cunningham "With poetic intensity, the novel weighs the explicit power of actions against the subtler but no less potent one of words" -- Vogue "Lock yourself up with this literary novel about mother-daughter ties" -- Glamour "A quietly suspenseful tale of a marriage that is both an escape from a powerfully sexual mother and manipulative father and an unpredictable journey to the heart of her authentic desires" -- Oprah Magazine

Author Bio

Lynn Freed is the author of two previous books, Home Ground and The Bungalow. She lives in Sonoma, California.