Banshee
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4.0 • 1 Rating
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- $15.99
Publisher Description
Samantha Baxter has a full, sane life—creative job, lovely family, and all the trappings of middle-age happiness. But when she gets a diagnosis that terrifies her, a lifetime of polite pleasing and putting others first ignites in her a surprising, pure rage. Maybe Sam will survive the surgery, and maybe not, but either way, she’ll spend the next three weeks burning her life down: sleeping with a student her daughter’s age, speaking every truth she’s ever swallowed, and refusing to apologize for her wildest, most essential self.
“Sexy and sad, dark and funny, ruthless and kind, this is Rachel DeWoskin’s ferociously feminist masterpiece. Every page of it glitters with rage and with love...It radiates with truth.” —CHERYL STRAYED, NYT-bestselling author of Wild, Tiny Beautiful Things, Brave Enough, and Torch
“A wicked, delicious ride towards an ambivalent redemption—angry, hilarious, all too true.” —ALLY SHEEDY, actress and author
“Banshee is the kind of book every woman I know wishes she'd written. Fierce, necessary, honest, a burn-it-all-down scorched earth policy to the toxic masculinity of this Age of Terror.” —Emily Rapp-Black, author of Poster Child and The Still Point of the Turning World
“Raucous, white-hot, and page-turning brilliance...A singular and vital reading experience.” —Gina Frangello, author of A Life in Men
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
DeWoskin (Blind) tackles the psychological effects of a life-changing diagnosis in her slow-burning, satisfying fifth novel. Samantha Baxter is a graduate professor of poetry who finds out she has breast cancer that requires immediate operation. Deeply affected by the news, Sam spends the time leading up to her surgery in a fit of existential self-doubt and rebellion, causing her husband, coworkers, and 19-year-old daughter to question her sanity. Almost immediately following the news, Sam begins to sleep with one of her students, a sprightly 24-year-old named Leah who makes her feel exhilarated. Though the affair creates a deep rift between Sam and her husband, Sam pursues it hungrily, leaning into the relationship as a means to distract herself from her mounting panic. Quickly, however, Sam unravels and becomes prone to outbursts during work and other self-destructive behavior. Her fear surrounding her cancer takes a life of its own, leaving the reader to wonder whether things will ever be the same after the operation. Intensely introspective and poetic, DeWoskin's work traps readers inside the claustrophobic mind of her protagonist and turns up the heat.