by Joanna Russ
First published 1977
Jeannine works as a librarian in a world where the Great Depression never ended. She spends her days hoping someone will propose marriage. Meanwhile, Joanna struggles to build a career as a feminist in 1970s America, fighting daily battles in workplaces run by men. Janet arrives from Whileaway, a planet populated entirely by women who have created their ideal society. Jael comes from yet another Earth, one where men and women live in completely separate societies that wage constant war against each other. She has modified her body with steel teeth and retractable claws like a cat. When these four women from different realities encounter one another, their meeting creates chaos. Each woman challenges the others' assumptions about gender, power, and what life could be. Their collision forces all four to question everything they believed about their worlds and themselves.
Genres: fiction, science-fiction, 20th-century, gender-studies, feminism, 21st-century
Vibes: intimate, suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: alternate-universe, found-family
Setting: America, Whileaway
Period: 1970s
214 pages · Hardcover · Gregg Press
Content warnings: sexism