About book – After Sappho
A poetic patchwork of fragments of literary history that together take shape as an intergenerational tale of the Lesbian family. An ancestry eruditely, playfully recovered’ BOOKER PRIZE JUDGES ‘Splendid!’ Lucy Ellmann, author of Ducks, Newburyport An exhilarating debut from a radiant new voice,
After Sappho reimagines the intertwined lives of feminists at the turn of the twentieth century. It’s 1895. Amid laundry and bruises, Rina Pierangeli Faccio gives birth to the child of the man who raped her – and who she has also been forced to marry. Unbroken, she determines to change her name; and her life, alongside it. 1902.
Romaine Brooks sails for Capri. She has barely enough money for the ferry, nothing for lunch; her paintbrushes are bald and clotted… But she is sure she can sell a painting – and is fervent in her belief that the island is detached from all fates she has previously suffered. …
