A Woman, In Bed

By Anne Finger
Paperback: $16.95

Simone sleeps with strangers. The most important stranger? Her husband Jacques. A love story spanning WWI to WWII in Paris.

Description

Simone comes of age during World War I. She comes into her own in World War II as part of the French resistance. Frequently, she abandons herself to lust–particularly to a man named Jacques. She leaves her first husband for him and spends over a decade as his lover. They eventually marry, yet Simone still sleeps with strangers, her husband the most distant of them all. What is she seeking? Simone isn’t sure. More than sex–a tenderness that lust can never fill. Just when her body feels most fragile, she meets Pierre, a much younger man, a novice at love-making, clumsy and overly emotional, a fool–yet there is something about him. A lifelong love story not about the relationship between two lovers, but between a woman and her body.

About the Creators

Anne Finger

Anne Finger is a writer of fiction—both short stories and a novel—as well as of creative non-fiction. She is currently the Holtzbrinck Fellow at the American Academy in Berlin. Her short story collection, Call Me Ahab, winner of the Prairie Schooner Award, was published in the Fall of 2009 by the University of Nebraska Press. She has had four other books published. Her short fiction has appeared in The Southern Review, Kenyon Review, Discourse, and Ploughshares. She has taught creative writing at the university level as well as teaching workshops in the community. She has also been awarded residencies at MacDowell, Yaddo, Djerassi, Centrum and Hedgebrook. She lives in Oakland, California.

Reviews

  • "[T]he book's originality, and its boldness, makes it impossible to turn away. Ambitious and demanding; one of a kind."

    - Kirkus Reviews
  • Anne Finger's story of a twentieth-century woman's lifelong journey toward owning all of herself, including her illness, will appeal to readers of character-focused, highly detailed historical fiction."Between world wars on the Côte d'Azur, young mother Simone meets a handsome stranger, a boarder at her family's inn, just when her husband's absence has become unbearable. A veteran of the Great War, a writer and academic, and a married father, Jacques thrills Simone with his superior intelligence and studied detachment. After Simone divorces and flees to Paris with her two children, securing her fate as Jacques' mistress and, eventually, his wife requires patience. Moving through Simone's activities working for the French Resistance in WWII and in many erotic affairs, the novel spans decades. By the time of the 1968 uprisings, Simone's body has, it seems, begun to betray her. Initially written off as nervousness brought on by her son's forced service in the war, Parkinson's disease unpredictably takes hold of her movements and mind. Constantly foreshadowing events to come, Finger's story of a twentieth-century woman's lifelong journey toward owning all of herself, including her illness, will appeal to readers of character-focused, highly detailed historical fiction."--Annie Bostrom Visit Website

    - Booklist
  • "A Woman in Bed transcends any attempt to confine it to a sub-genre. It is probably beyond dispute that a reader with a woman's body is going to come away with the greatest appreciation for the novel. Still, the book has a great deal to say to any reader."--Michael Northen

    - Wordgathering

Paperback

  • ISBN 9781941026748
  • Publication Date Jun 05, 2018
  • Trim Size 9 × 6 in
  • Weight 1.3125 lbs
  • Page Count 304
  • Interests

  • Audience Adult
  • BISAC Category 1 FICTION / Literary
  • BISAC Category 2 FICTION / Women
  • BISAC Category 3 FICTION / Historical / General
  • Themes Fiction, History & Civics, World War II
  • Reading Levels

  • Guided Reading Adult
  • Interest Level Adult
  • Reading Level Adult
  • This Book is Included in These Collections:

    • 23
      Adult Fiction
      Collection of 23 books: $362.95

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