Our Better Natures

'A captivating invocation of a moment of revolutionary zeal and hope [and] a prescient reminder of the importance of testimony in the fight for justice, of individual stories. Eventually, they will be heard' Irish Examiner 'The strength of sympathetic engagement is what the novel has always done best, [and] Ward movingly demonstrates the need to use this to keep freeing ourselves, day after day' Guardian, 'Book of the Day' Guardian 'Book of the Day' 'Tackles big ideas with verve while remaining alert to the multiple power dynamics shaping women's lives' Daily Mail 'Ward evokes the stages of womanhood with dark panache' Melissa Katsoulis, The Times 'Ward fleshes out her real-life characters with complete conviction, deftly threading their own words into the fabric of her fiction' Financial Times Amid the chaos and political upheaval of 1970s America, three women must accept the world as it is, or act to change it. Phyllis Patterson is a housewife in White Plains, Illinois. When her son Jimmy returns home from Vietnam with a Korean wife and children, Phyllis's small-town world is upended as she starts to see her herself through new eyes. After a long and traumatic absence, Andrea Dworkin arrives back in America to embody a feminist revolution, no matter the personal price. Muriel Rukeyser is a poet in New York, 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 postcard from an imprisoned writer thousands of miles away will unite these women in the pursuit of a world they can be in, and believe in. Full of compassion, imagination and rich storytelling, Our Better Natures is a remarkable novel about power, feminism and freedom.