Mandy Beaumont
Sydney: Hachette, 2020.

“She is the explosion, the clamour, the thunder. She is the beat, the rage. She is every piece of violence imagined on the skin. She is the near miss. She is the woman you once were, the woman you could be, the woman you are. She is a triumph of our shared history, is every one of you, is your wild and screaming voice on street corners, is the madwoman you fear you may become. She loves you. As women’s voices begin to rise together, Mandy Beaumont’s brutal and uncompromising stories are a compelling reminder of the ways in which women have fallen, been dismissed, hurt, hated and loved from afar. These are the stories we have always known, have always heard about and are perhaps just short moments away from. They are yours, ours, mine. They are booming anger. They are wild love. They are the distorted and the decided, the imagined and the wanted. They are the shaking ground beneath our feet. A powerful call to arms. They compel us to stand tall. To break free. To defy the gaze. To claim our space. Wild, Fearless Chests is the sound of a certain revolution.” (publisher’s blurb) “Drowning in Thick Air” is shocking… It is not like anything I have read in recent years and takes me to a place I have never been in my life or imagination or in fiction.’ (Frank Moorhouse)