Our Better Natures

(Paperback)

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In 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 the world they believe in.

Full of compassion, imagination and rich storytelling, Our Better Natures is a powerful novel about language, connection, and the courage of women who change the world.

Author Bio

Sophie Ward is an actor and writer. She is the author of Love and Other Thought Experiments, which was longlisted for the Booker Prize in 2020, and her second novel The Schoolhouse, which was shortlisted for the Polari Prize 2023. Sophie has a degree in Philosophy and Literature and a PhD from Goldsmiths on the use of narrative in philosophy of mind. She lives in London with her Korean-American wife.