Cosmopolis Urban Stories by Women

Action, fear, alienation, fantasy, 22 short stories by women capturing the very special flavour and personality of city life. From Beijing to Berlin, by way of Soweto, San Francisco, Damascus, Dublin, London, Tangier...Stunning variety in their depiction of urban manners and mores. Publishers WeeklyA truly cosmopolitan writer, Ines Rieder was born in Austria and now divides her time between Vienna, Sao Paolo and California. Her previous books include the award-winning The Women (1989).

"I hope to inspire women not only to look out their windows, or to peek into their neighbors' yards, but to open their doors and step out into the streets of their cities," writes Ines Rieder in the introduction to this book. And step out we do, at least in our imaginations. In twenty-two stories spanning six continents, women writers describe their love affairs with, and their hatred of, the cities in which they reside. There's ambivalence, too, as individuals confront the locales which house them, and dream of better conditions - social justice, equity and fair play for all. Rosanna Fiocchetto's "The Day Rome Went Crazy," is funny, whimsical. Others, like Micha Warde's "An Ave Maria for Beirut," convey the tragedy of war and focus on the mundane task of survival in a city wracked by violence. Still others, such as Eilis NiDhuibhne's "Rootlessness," look at the effects of urban migration on one working-class Dublin family.While some of the stories are more compelling than others the overall collection is poignant and evocative. Well balanced - the anthology includes a panorama of multi-ethnic, multi-class voices from both lesbian and heterosexual communities the world over - it is sure to inspire wanderlust. Read it, and pack your bags. -- From Independent Publisher