Before Women Had Wings

How it reads

Before Women Had Wings is literary fiction (coming-of-age family drama, specifically), and its dominant mood is dark. It goes to difficult places and doesn't look away. The pace is moderate — neither a page-turner nor a slow burn — so it holds up whether you read it in long sittings or short ones.

It's set in a suburban setting, in the recent past, told in the first person by a single narrator. Its central concerns are family, coming of age and loss and grief. In weight it's heavy and literary — denser, more serious, and more demanding of you.

It stands alone, so there's nothing else you need to read first or after. The ending is bittersweet: it resolves, but at a price. At 279 pages it's a quick read. It's well known, the kind of book most keen readers have heard of.