Angie Cruz (2019) Dominicana. London, John Murray. 978-1-529-30487-9

 

    Again, the main theme of this book is not domestic abuse, but it occurs as part of the marriage between the main character and the man twice her age she is persuaded to marry at 15 to improve the chances of a better life for all the family.
 
[Trigger Warning: Domestic Violence]
[Spoiler alert].
 
Ana comes from a poor family in what is now the Dominican Republic. The best chance for her family to have a better life comes from emigrating and moving to America. Ana attracts the eye of a Dominican who has already moved to NYC and marriage brings with it the prospect of the whole family making that move. Ana’s husband is violent towards her when he feels his authority over her is undermined or their precarious position is threatened by her actions. When, during political upheaval in Dominica, her husband returns home, Ana is left free to fall in love, make friends, and develop some financial independence. When her husband returns, she has to choose between duty and family, freedom and love.
 
The story is told to the backdrop of political events in Dominica and American intervention in those events and the murder of Malcolm X. It beautifully details the experience of immigrants in 1960’s New York and is based on the life of the author’s mother.
 
Awards:
·        Shortlisted for the Women’s Prize for Fiction 2020

Delia Owens (2018) Where the Crawdads Sing. London, Corsair. 978-1-4721-5466-8

 

[Trigger Warning: Domestic Violence and Sexual Violence]
 
The theme of this book is not about domestic abuse, but violence towards the mother and siblings of the main character and later in the book, the protagonist is subjected to sexual violence.
 
[Spoiler alert].
 
The story follows the life of a young girl, Kya, abandoned by both parents and her older siblings in the marshlands of North Carolina. The family is brought low by the father’s violence and alcoholism leading all the family to leave, until he himself disappears, leaving Kya alone to fend for herself.
 
Kya survives and eventually thrives with the help and support of a few particular neighbours, including the man she will eventually marry, who teaches her to read. The “Marsh Girl” does however suffer considerable negative attention and is shunned by many of the local townspeople. She is pursued by the local town “jock” and has an affair he keeps secret while making a more socially acceptable marriage. Meeting her later he wishes to continue the affair and sexually assaults her. When he is later found dead, she is implicated, tried but finally acquitted.
 
With the support of her friend, and later husband, Tate, she becomes a well-regarded naturalist, author and artist. Only after her death does her husband find out that she is also a published poet and did in fact commit the murder for which she was tried.
 
Awards:
·        The New York Times Fiction Best Seller 2019 and 2020
·        Listed as Barnes and Nobles Best Books of 2018
·        Sold more print copies than any other adult fiction or non-fiction title in 2019