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Published May 2020
352 pages
Genre: Thrillers
Publication Information
From the award-winning author of Wonder Valley and Visitation Street comes a serial killer story like you've never seen before—a literary thriller of female empowerment and social change.
In West Adams, a rapidly changing part of South Los Angeles, they're referred to as "these women." These women on the corner … These women in the club … These women who won't stop asking questions … These women who got what they deserved …
In her masterful new novel, Ivy Pochoda creates a kaleidoscope of loss, power, and hope featuring five very different women whose lives are steeped in danger and anguish. They're connected by one man and his deadly obsession, though not all of them know that yet. There's Dorian, still adrift after her daughter's murder remains unsolved; Julianna, a young dancer nicknamed Jujubee, who lives hard and fast, resisting anyone trying to slow her down; Essie, a brilliant vice cop who sees a crime pattern emerging where no one else does; Marella, a daring performance artist whose work has long pushed boundaries but now puts her in peril; and Anneke, a quiet woman who has turned a willfully blind eye to those around her for far too long. The careful existence they have built for themselves starts to crumble when two murders rock their neighborhood.
Written with beauty and grit, tension and grace, These Women is a glorious display of storytelling, a once-in-a-generation novel.
"Heartbreaking.... This deep dive into the lives of women too often unseen in the shadows makes them vividly unforgettable." - Publishers Weekly, starred review
"Pochoda stuns with this disquieting literary thriller rife with descriptive street language and violence. It is complex, intense, and enthralling." - Library Journal, starred review
"With raw, visceral prose, Pochoda vividly evokes L.A.'s distinctive cityscape and the burdens and threats women face there." - Booklist
"Gritty, sometimes cheesy, very on-the-nose with its message—but satisfying as a murder mystery." - Kirkus
"Pochoda turns grief, suffering and loss into art, crafting a literary thriller that is no less compelling for its deep emotional resonance." - Vogue
"These Women is full of resilient and undaunted characters that society often doesn't give a second look to. But Ivy Pochoda does and in these pages she gives us the small story that grows so large in meaning and emotion as to transcend genre. It tells us how to look at ourselves and at what is important." - Michael Connelly, author of Fair Warning
"I can promise you will not easily forget the women in this book. This is Ivy Pochoda at the height of her power—to slip inside the psyche of women at the margins; to, with a conjurer's flair, capture the voices of multiple characters with pitch perfect grace; and to craft a bendy, surprising, page-turning tale. It's brilliantly plotted and beautifully written." - Attica Locke
This information about These Women was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Photo: Justin Nowell
Ivy Pochoda is the author of the critically acclaimed novel Visitation Street published by Ecco / Dennis Lehane Books. Visitation Street was chosen as an Amazon Best Book of the Month, Amazon Best Book of 2013, and a Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers selection. Her writing has appeared in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Los Angeles Review of Books, The Huffington Post, Self, and House & Garden. Her first novel The Art of Disappearing, was published by St. Martin's Press in 2009. She has a BA from Harvard College in Classical Greek and an MFA from Bennington College in fiction.
Ivy grew up in Brooklyn, NY and currently lives in downtown Los Angeles with her husband Justin Nowell.
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