When four young women meet at Oxford in 1928, they are drawn together by their love of reading, their rebellious spirits and their shared sense of being outsiders. Each admits to having stolen a book at some point, and from this confession, the Society is born.
Annie, the daughter of a bricklayer, has travelled from Australia to honour her late father’s dream that she attend Oxford. After his murder, his friends scrape together enough money to send her abroad, but the funds fall short, forcing Annie to take on work.
Ridley, another Australian, is a flapper from a privileged family whose flirtatious manner earns her the disapproval of Oxford’s rigid upper classes.
Dorelia, a wealthy and brilliant Parsi woman, is kind and poised, yet her skin colour isolates her in a world unready to accept her.
Norma, a schoolteacher from the north of England, has saved for years to be there, but her mother’s worsening illness threatens her tenuous position.
Together, they make a pledge: ‘I hereby undertake to take and read any book kept away from nice young ladies.’ Over late-night cocoa in their rooms, they devour Lady Chatterley’s Lover, The Communist Manifesto and works on sexuality that challenge every convention they’ve been taught. As they read, they begin to recognise the half-truths and censored narratives they’ve been fed. What starts as a shared curiosity becomes a mission to confront a profound literary injustice – one that ultimately leads them into dangerous territory.
Rich in character and full of interesting subplots, The Society of Literary Marauders keeps you captivated right to the final page. Highly entertaining, engaging and beautifully written.
Reviewed by Sue Stanbridge
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Sasha Wasley was born and raised in Boorloo (Perth), Western Australia. She holds a PhD in feminist literature and loves nature, Jane Austen and puns.
Sasha loves the Australian environment and has a fascination with animals, trees and our extraordinary wild landscape. She likes nothing better than exploring the countryside, going on adventures and discovering new sights.
Sasha is an advocate for literacy and runs writing workshops for children and adults, as well as offering mentoring services. She is a WA Ambassador for Books in Homes Australia charity promoting early book ownership for life success.
Sasha can’t seem to constrain herself to one genre. She writes middle grade fiction and urban fantasy as Ash Harrier. Her debut novel was published in 2015. Today, she lives in the Perth hills region with her partner and two adult children, surrounded by dogs, cats and chickens.
She is grateful to live and write on unceded Whadjuk Noongar land.
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