The Falling Woman
A vivid desert odyssey, The Falling Woman travels through a haunting landscape of memory, myth and mental maps. Told in three voices – Stella, Estella and Estelle – this is an inspiring story drawn from childhood memories, imagined worlds and the pressing realities of daily life.
The Falling Woman charts one woman’s journey into the heartland. It is a journey taken across the desert, into the heart of memory, and into the mythic heart, that place to which we return in times of crisis.
2003 | ISBN 9781876756369 | Paperback | 200 x 130 mm | 270 pp
Awards
1992 The Australian's Best Books of the Year
1992 Top Twenty Title, Listener Women’s Book Festival (NZ)
Reviews
It’s the extraordinary breadth and depth of ideas that Hawthorne asks her readers to engage with her in The Falling Woman that, in many ways, makes this quite a remarkable novel. We begin to build a picture of a great alternative thinker.
–Diane Brown, JAS Review
This book commands endless reflection, since it opens up the ontological question of being. Hawthorne’s book haunts me, it won’t let go. On the one hand, it journeys through an unexplored territory of mind that few apart from Dostoyevski dared look into… Let me first say that this is a perfectly structured piece of writing. Its form should help unravel the threads of signification, but we are not dealing here with the explicit, let alone the assertive, or blatant. The only certainty Hawthorne has is that nature is her cradle.
–Jasna Novakovic, Australian Women’s Book Review
A remarkable, lyrical first novel.
–Robin Morgan, Ms Magazine
This is a beautiful book, written with powerful insight and captivating originality.
–Julia Hancock, LOTL
There can be no question about the imaginative reach and power of this novel. It is a book that women will, and men should, welcome.
–John Hanrahan, The Age
… this imaginative, verbally ambitious account of the relationship between two women must command attention.
–Dennis Davison, Best Books of the Year, The Australian
The Falling Woman is a novel that asks profound questions and attempts to answer them partly by structure. Proceeding by image to memory to present, it curls in upon itself like a spiral, the shape that expresses the universe.
–Elizabeth Smither, Evening Post, NZ
The Falling Woman is a big book that'll make your head spin.
–Lucy Jane Bledsoe, Bay Windows, USA
The Falling Woman is a “road book”and the protagonist, Estella, and her girlfriend Olga travel through many landscapes…{It] aims for the stars and often gets there.
–S.K. Kelen, The Canberra Times
Although she is working with complicated philosophical themes, her use of language is poetic and crystal clear.
–Beryl Fletcher
Susan Hawthorne’s novel The Falling Woman (1992) is a significant contribution to the field of sexuality studies. The book offers a complex and unique discourse on the myriad ways our sexuality can shape our everyday lives.
–Jay Thompson, Re/viewing the Quotidian
It is a strange book to begin with until you get into the pattern of “now” and “yesteryear” as it is told both in the present and flashback style. It is strangely compelling.
–Jan Jackson, Search SA