The Falling Woman

One woman's journey into the heart's landscape is mirrored by a haunting desert odyssey in this novel told in three voicesStella, Estella, and Estelle. The narration follows Stella from birth to age 29 as she confronts epilepsy, death, and lesbianism; Estella as she confronts the Australian desert and the metaphoric edge of her consciousness with her lover Olga; and Estelle, the timeless, mythical voice of women in different cultures and times sharing their stories that range from the mundane to the frightening. The final chapter draws all three voices together through an analogy of comets, snakes, and stars, in which Stella becomes Estella and Estelle and they move into a literal cosmic realm as one.

Susan Hawthorne is the cofounder of Spinifex Press, the author of Wild Politics, coauthor of Australia for Women, and the coeditor of After Shock: September 11, 2001: Feminist Perspectives; Car Maintenance, Explosives, and Love; and CyberFeminism. She is a research associate at Victoria University and a former chair of the International Feminist Book Fair.