Inspired by the Booker Prizes's playful valentines day round-up of books focused on unmarried women who defy societal expectations, here is our recommended spinster-lit reading list!
With a mix of Australian and international authors, and stories that range from tense dramas in the time of witch trials, to uplifting domestic stories of a quiet, well-lived life, this list has books for all tastes, and will offer an antidote to the inescapable number of love stories out there.
My Brilliant Career
Miles Franklin
There's no more iconic Australian work of spinster-lit than Miles Franklin's My Brilliant Career – adapted for screen and stage, the story has been beloved for over 100 years!
Sybylla is a strong-willed sixteen-year-old, desperate to leave her family's outback farm and live a life of artistic endevour and self-expression. But between the long days of work required to keep the farm going, and the expectation that she finds a well-off man to marry, her bright dreams for the future start to seem unattainable.
Sybylla knows she has the soul of an artist, but in order to have the brilliant career she envisions for herself, she'll have to flout convention and work out how to live life on her own terms.
Nightingale
Laura Elvery
Nightingale is a beautiful work of historical fiction – with a dash of the supernatural – that our booksellers voted one of the best Australian fiction books of last year! And, it's perfect spinster-lit, reflecting on the life of Florence Nightingale, one of history's most notable spinsters.
Florence is bed-ridden, looking back on ninety years of life from her sickbed in Mayfair. Hers has been a life of innovation, boundary-pushing and, most of all, hard work. She is not a saint – in fact Elvery's version of Nightingale is disctinctly, fallibly human – but through her we do get to see a woman's life as it can be when she's free to forge her own path. Instead of marrying and staying in the traditional domestic sphere, Florence was determined to work, and pioneered a way for other women to be able to do the same. It's a moving novel, and a must-read for history fans.
Annie Magdalene
Barbara Hanrahan
Barbara Hanrahan is best known as a visual artist, but she was also an incredible writer that any lover of Miles Franklin should read. Annie Magdalene is a gentle but engrossing read, telling the life story of a woman quietly flouting convention.
Throughout her life in 1900s Adelaide, Annie is independent and clear-sighted; she knows what she wants and is undaunted in pursuing it. The beauty of this story comes from the quiet joys of the life Annie builds – the dinner parties she has with friends, the holiday she excitedly saves for, the chickens she raises and can’t bring herself to kill. This is a joyful version of spinsterhood, full of domestic pleasures and grateful independence.
The Hounding
Xenobe Purvis
If quiet, domestic life isn't of interest, try this haunting historical novel about unmarried women embracing their feral side.
The Mansfield sisters are outsiders in their village, a subject of gossip for their haughtiness and their strange ways. But over one long, scorching summer, gossip turns to hysteria, and something altogether more dangerous ... There are rumours that the sisters have been seen transforming into a pack of wild dogs, running wild in the night.
Are the Mansfield sisters really agents of some dark magic? Or rather than wild animals, are they simply untamed women? And either way, how long will they be able to go unchallenged?
Diary of a Void
Emi Yagi, translated by David Boyd & Lucy North
This cult classic is perfect for anyone who's been aggravated by how differently women with families are treated to those without. Diary of a Void follows Ms Shibata, an officeworker in Japan who is tired of being expected to fetch coffee and tidy the boardroom for her male colleagues. And the only way she can see to avoid these supposedly womanly duties is to weaponise the very thing her coworkers are unthinkingly exploiting …
Ms Shibata tells her office that she's pregnant, and suddenly she's free of having to do the dishes or stay late working overtime. Unfortunately, she's also committed herself to a lie that will demand proof at some point. With the help of research, a pregnancy tracker app and a towel stuffed down her shirt, she manages to keep the lie going, and in the process discovers that living as an expectant mother is entirely different to life for an unmarried woman. But as the months go on, a crisis is nearing … is there anyway for Ms Shibata to stop her lies from tearing her life apart?
Orlanda
Jacqueline Harpman, translated by Ros Schwartz
Similar to The Hounding's exploration of feral femininity, Orlanda explores the feral energy inside a socially acceptable, meek-seeming woman, but through a male alter-ego.
The novel follows Aline, a prim woman of middle age who is shocked to find her thoughts increasingly filled with someone else's voice. The voice is her antithesis – a brash, lusty adventurer – but she can't seem to stop it filling her head. Before long Aline's control of her own mind slips and the voice takes over, and in the process transforms her body into that of a lithe young man. The alter-ego, going by the name Orlanda, is determined to leave his mark on Aline's neat life, and follow every whim she's been denying.
This novel is a fascinating look at gender, identity and desire that pays homage to Virginia Woolf's classic Orlando – and whether you find yourself rooting for Orlanda's wildness or for Aline to restore normalcy, this story will get you thinking about what is considered socially acceptable, and for who.
The Wax Child
Olga Ravn, translated by Martin Aitken
Told from the perspective of a wax doll made by an isolated old woman, and based on a real Danish witch trial, this is a powerful story of women who didn't fit into society's mould, and were villainised for their difference. More than anything, it's a reminder of the corrosive power of rumour and scandal – as relevant today as it was in the 1600s.
Christenze Krukow makes a child out of wax and human hair, and in doing so creates a small, inanimate witness to every quiet moment of her life. The doll watches Christenze navigate her village, and sees the suspicious looks people give her; it watches as Christenze gathers with her friends by candlelight and sees the love shared between the women. It watches as suspicion turns to hostility and the village men start turning trees into burning pyres …
The Catch
Yrsa Daley-Ward
It might seem strange to have a story of motherhood on a spinster-focused reading list, but trust me – this novel unflinchingly takes stock of the pros and cons of singledom and motherhood.
Clara and Dempsey are twin sisters who are not close. When they were children their mother Serene disappeared, and their small family never recovered. Now they're adults, essentially estranged from one another, and each struggling with their fractured childhood in their own way. Then one day, as an adult, Clara sees her mother casually shopping in a department store, and the fleeting encounter sends her spiralling. Dempsey is more sceptical but even so, both women must face the question – could that woman really be their mother? And how does their view of the past, and themselves, change as a result?
This is a mesmerising trainwreck of a novel that explores the cost of motherhood, and shows that sometimes true joy in life comes from choosing yourself.
Find more wonderful books exploring the lives of single women here.
