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The Furies

Three Women and Their Violent Fight for Justice

Elizabeth Flock

$42.99

Hardback

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English
Viking
12 March 2024
A searing portrait of three real-life women who used violence to survive when traditional systems of justice failed them

The Furies tells the stories of three unforgettable women who chose to use lethal force to gain power, safety, and freedom when the institutions meant to protect them - government, police, courts - utterly failed to do so. Brittany Smith, a young Alabama woman, killed a man she said raped her in her home, but was denied a self-defense claim; Angoori Dahariya led a gang in Uttar Pradesh, India, dedicated to avenging victims of domestic abuse; and Cicek Mustafa Zibo fought in a thousands-strong all-female militia that battled ISIS in Syria. Each woman has been criticised for their actions by those who believe that violence is never the answer; yet each has transmuted a story of pain into a story of power.

In luminous prose, award-winning journalist Elizabeth Flock asks searching questions about cultures in which violence seems like the only means of survival, when deeply ingrained ideas about masculinity and women have helped breed the unsafe conditions that women face. The novelistic accounts of these three women offer profound insights into the quest for understanding what a society where women have real power might look like.

By:  
Imprint:   Viking
Country of Publication:   United Kingdom
Dimensions:   Height: 222mm,  Width: 144mm,  Spine: 29mm
Weight:   422g
ISBN:   9780241678015
ISBN 10:   0241678013
Pages:   304
Publication Date:  
Audience:   General/trade ,  College/higher education ,  Professional and scholarly ,  ELT Advanced ,  Primary
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Active

Elizabeth Flock is a journalist and the author of Love and Marriage in Mumbai. Her journalism has appeared in the New Yorker, The New York Times, The Guardian, The Atlantic, and on the PBS NewsHour, where her investigation into sexual harassment and retaliation in the U.S. Forest Service won an Emmy Award and was nominated for a Peabody Award. A PEN America fellow and IWMF and Pulitzer Center grantee, she lives in Chicago, Illinois.

Reviews for The Furies: Three Women and Their Violent Fight for Justice

This is an arresting, deeply reported new book, which considers three case studies of women . . . who, when faced with institutional failures of various kinds, took matters into their own hands . . . Flock is a patient reporter who embeds with her subjects long enough to write about their inner worlds with authority and nuance -- Rachel Monroe * The Washington Post * These stories of women's vengeance are both harrowing and thrilling. Rosa Parks' defiance was a carefully planned political act; these begin as the opposite - sheer rage. This gripping, inflaming book, itself an act of fury, shows how revenge can transmute into politics or be crushed by it -- Larissa MacFarquhar * author of Strangers Drowning * The Furies is a remarkable and important exploration - reported with deep rigour and care - of what justice looks like for women who have been stripped of power and are trying to reclaim it -- Rachel Aviv * author of Strangers to Ourselves * Flock brings rigor and granularity to her reporting . . . the juxtapositions in The Furies provoke thought. We tend to see violent women as deviants, but as Flock recounts the stories of Smith, Dahariya and Zibo, their longings and indulgences, their fears, motivations and faults, she shows how mistaken this notion is. The violence in her book is committed by women who are in many ways perfectly ordinary . . . Flock has done a service by portraying her subjects’ human complexity -- Sanam Maher * New York Times * The Furies is a glorious excavation of women's rage. But it is also a cautionary tale of how the world treats women who dare to fight back, to assert their rights, to scream into the dark void of endless discrimination and inequality. These three women will fill you with hope, despair, and yes, fury -- Rachel Louise Snyder * author of No Visible Bruises * Women around the world are fighting back against their oppressors, and these powerful stories - conveyed with rigour and compassion - will leave readers fired up, furious and raring to join the cause -- Kirsten Miller * author of The Change * Drawing on in-depth interviews over many years, Emmy Award-winning journalist Elizabeth Flock creates vivid profiles of three women who responded to abuse with violence and vengeance.…. Stirring narratives of defiance * Kirkus Reviews * Flock has a novelist’s knack for creating suspense, her reporting is thorough, and her prose is moving . . . This one will stick with readers * Publishers Weekly * Flock brings the gripping stories of Brittany Smith, Angoori Dahariya, and Cicek Mustafa Zibo to life with vivid detail and in-depth research . . . Her compelling narrative will resonate with those who seek to live in a more feminist, egalitarian society * Booklist *


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