by Fay Weldon
First published 2013
Praxis Duveen sits in her cramped basement apartment, trying to write her memoir. She remembers herself at five years old in 1920s England, still untouched by the chaos that would define her life. Her unstable mother and absent father left her with only her troubled sister Hypatia for family. The decades transformed Praxis through countless roles. She worked as a prostitute, survived rape, married, committed adultery, and somehow found herself leading a global women's movement. Each incarnation brought new challenges and revelations about what women truly desire. Now, looking back across forty years, Praxis confronts the shocking and strange detours that shaped her extraordinary journey. Her story moves between savage realities and moments of unexpected liberation as she searches for meaning in a life that refused to follow any conventional path.
Genres: 20th-century, biographical-fiction, 21st-century, activism
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: found-family, unreliable-narrator
Setting: England
Period: 1920s
256 pages · ebook · Open Road Media
Content warnings: abuse, rape, sexual-assault