Lara Williams

A sharply intelligent and intimate debut novel about a secret society of hungry young women who meet after dark and feast to reclaim their appetites--and their physical spaces--that posits the question: if you feed a starving woman, what will she grow into? Roberta spends her life trying not to take up space. At almost thirty, she is adrift and alienated from life. Stuck in a mindless job and reluctant to pursue her passion for food, she suppresses her appetite and recedes to the corners of rooms. But when she meets Stevie, a spirited and effervescent artist, their intense friendship sparks a change in Roberta, a shift in her desire for more. Together, they invent the Supper Club, a transgressive and joyous collective of women who gather to celebrate, rather than admonish, their hungers. They gather after dark and feast until they are sick; they break into private buildings and leave carnage in their wake; they embrace their changing bodies; they stop apologizing. For these women, each extraordinary yet unfulfilled, the club is a way to explore, discover, and push the boundaries of the space they take up in the world. Yet as the club expands, growing both in size and rebellion, Roberta is forced to reconcile herself to the desire and vulnerabilities of the body--and the past she has worked so hard to repress. Devastatingly perceptive and savagely funny, Supper Club is an essential coming-of-age story for our times.

Supper Club

From the prize-winning author of Supper Club comes a wickedly funny and slyly poignant new satire on modern life. For fans of Sally Rooney, Ottessa Moshfegh, and Convenience Store Woman. Ingrid works on a gargantuan luxury cruise liner where she spends her days reorganizing the gift shop shelves and waiting for long-term guests to drop dead in the aisles. On her days off, she disembarks from the ship, wasting the hours aimlessly following tourists around, drinking the local alcohol, and buying clothes she never intends to wear again. It's not a bad life. At least, it distracts her from thinking about the other life--the other person--she left behind five years ago. That is, until the day she is selected by the ship's enigmatic captain and (ill-informed) wabi sabi devotee, Keith, for his mentorship program. Encouraging her to reflect on past mistakes and her desperation to remain lost at sea, Keith pushes Ingrid further than she ever thought possible. But as her friendships and professional life onboard steadily fall apart, Ingrid must ask herself: how do you know when you have gone too far? Utterly original, mischievous, and thought-provoking, The Odyssey is a merciless takedown of consumer capitalism and our anxious, ill-fated quests to find something to believe in. It's a voyage that will lead our heroine all the way home, though she will do almost anything to avoid getting there.

The Odyssey

'It was the curse of the modern age, options; who needed options, when everything was essentially meaningless?'So says one of the characters in Lara Williams's extraordinary debut story collection. Treats is a break-up album of tales covering relationships, the tyranny of choice and self navigation. This fresh, beguiling new voice paints a portrait of contemporary womanhood, balancing wry humour with a pervading sense of alienation.Williams's characters struggle with how to negotiate intimacy within relationships and isolation when single, the pitfalls and indignities of dating, dragged down by dissatisfaction. Meanwhile the dilemmas of contemporary adulthood play out, including abortion, depression, extra-marital affairs, infatuation, new baby anxiety, bereavement, hair loss, sexual ethics, cats and taxidermy

Treats

“A dark wonder. An often harrowing (and in parts, very, very funny) debut, it targets the unfathomable nonsense of relationships, work and modern living with a keen eye, head-spinning wordplay and enough compassion to crush your heart. Buy it for everyone you know." —The Skinny She finds herself single, twenty-nine, partially-employed, and about a half a stone overweight. Roller dexter of eligible friends rattling thin. Thirties breathing down her neck like an inappropriate uncle. She jogs. Looks good in turquoise. Finds herself punctuating gas “better out than in!” patting her stomach like a department store Santa. This is who I am, she thinks. The women in Lara Williams’ debut story collection, A Selfie as Big as the Ritz, navigate the tumultuous interval between early twenties and middle age. In the title story, a relationship implodes against the romantic backdrop of Paris. In “One of Those Life Things,” a young woman struggles to say the right thing at her best friend’s abortion. In “Penguins,” a girlfriend tries to accept her boyfriend’s bizarre sexual fantasy. In “Treats,” a single woman comes to terms with her loneliness. As Williams’ characters attempt to lean in, fall in love, hold together a family, fend off loneliness, and build a meaningful life, we see them alternating between expectation and resignation, giddiness and melancholy, the rollercoaster we all find ourselves on.

Stories

A Selfie as Big as the Ritz

Le divoratrici

Mark Haddon

Margaret Drabble

Ramsey Campbell

David Constantine

Alan Beard

Gaia Holmes

Bernardine Bishop

Lucie McKnight-Hardy

Matthew Holness

Something has fallen away. We have lost a part of ourselves, our history, what we once were. That something, when we encounter it again, look it straight in the eyes, disgusts us, makes us retch. This is the horror of the abject. Following the success of Comma's award-winning New Uncanny anthology, The New Abject invites leading authors to respond to two parallel theories of the abject - Julia Kristeva's theory of the psychoanalytic, intimate abject, and Georges Bataille's societal equivalent - with visceral stories of modern unease.

Tales of Modern Unease

The New Abject

De supperclub van Lara Williams is een vlijmscherpe roman over een honger die nooit gestild kan worden. Over mensen die ons maken tot wie we zijn, die ons laten verdwalen maar uiteindelijk ook redden. De supperclub van Lara Williams is een subversieve coming-of-ageroman voor vrouwen van nu. Roberta is negenentwintig en opgegroeid met de boodschap zo onzichtbaar en plooibaar mogelijk te leven. Ze heeft dan ook een nietszeggende baan en is te onzeker om iets te doen met haar passie voor koken. Tot ze de tegendraadse Stevie ontmoet. Samen richten ze De supperclub op, een geheim genootschap voor vrouwen die hongeren naar meer. Vrouwen die genoeg hebben van waardeloze mannen, waardeloze seks en de algehele verwachting zo min mogelijk op te vallen. Ze komen samen als de avond valt en feesten tot ze misselijk worden. Ze drinken, dansen en schreeuwen. En hun lijf dijt uit. In het middelpunt staat Roberta – cynisch maar onzeker, messcherp maar ook zoekend. Zoekend naar het antwoord op de eenvoudige vraag: als je een hongerige vrouw voedt, waartoe is ze dan in staat? De supperclub van Lara Williams is een vlijmscherpe aanklacht tegen de patriarchale maatschappij, een roman die schopt tegen opgelegde normen en waarden en waarin je je tegelijkertijd watertandend tegoed doet aan onweerstaanbare beschrijvingen van de lekkerste gerechten. ‘Williams decanteert deze roman als ware het een wijnproeverij, in scheutjes, en spreekt over de kleine, dagelijkse aanpassingen die vrouwen doen om overeind te blijven in de maatschappij. Stilistisch subtiel en uiterst secuur.’ – The New York Times Book Review ‘Williams’ stem doet denken aan die van Rooney: toegankelijk, precies en zowel ongemakkelijk over hun plek in de maatschappij als vastberaden om voor zichzelf op te komen. Deze roman kan gelezen worden als een vrouwelijke tegenhanger van Palahniuks Fight Club, met als centraal thema de onderdrukking van vrouwen door mannen. Krachtig en origineel.’ – The Guardian ‘Een roman die de maatschappelijke verwachtingen van vrouwelijke begeerte tart – naar eten, seks, genot, alles. Verrukkelijk!’ – USA Today

De Supperclub

Margaret Bremner

Norma J. Burnell

Penny Raile

The Art of Zentangle teaches artists of all skill levels the meditative process of combining shapes and lines to make complex and interesting final pieces of artwork.

50 Inspiring Drawings, Designs & Ideas for the Meditative Artist

The Art of Zentangle

Lara gives tender guidance to any woman walking the unexpected paths of betrayal. She teaches and reminds readers that we are not in control, God is.

Trusting God Through Shattered Hopes and Suffocating Fears

To Walk Or Stay

This 4-week Bible study leads the reader on a journey with Jesus. Each week contains 5 study days, a suggested text for Scripture memory, and an optional "family time" reading and discussion point. Each day looks at the life of Jesus as well as personal application for our modern day lives. Ideal for the Advent season, this study will help the reader to purposefully practice remembering Jesus.

The Light of the World

Then Came Jesus

Rooted offers study participants the opportunity to experience the transformative power of love as revealed in the Book of Ephesians. Written in an easy-to-use format, the conversational style and questions help participants uncover the daily significance in their life of God's love coming down. Participants will be inspired to let God's love flow out of them in fresh, new, and authentic ways to a broken world--even to those people who sometimes may be difficult to love.

Going Deep Into God's Transforming Love

Rooted

All of our relationships, no matter how messy, present us with a choice. In every relationship we can either be a life giver or a life taker. We can either pour out life into our relationships, regardless of the other person, or we can desperately cling to and aim to control our earthly relationships in hopes of gaining the joy and peace we crave.In this 4-week Bible study, Lara Williams teaches us how we as Christ-followers can be life givers in our relationships. Using the acronym L-I-F-E, Lara leads the reader through Scripture looking at practical steps necessary to becoming a life giver. Because in Christ, we've been set free to pour life into our relationships, regardless of how messy they may be.

Life Giver

Paul Theroux

Saleem Haddad

Sarah Schofield

Gerard Woodward

Adam Marek

Christine Poulson

Lucie McKnight Hardy

Mike Nelson

Meave Haughey

Karen Featherstone

SOMETHING HAS FALLEN AWAY. We have lost a part of ourselves, our history, what we once were. That something, when we encounter it again, look it straight in the eyes, disgusts us, makes us retch. This is the horror of the abject. Following the success of Comma’s award-winning New Uncanny anthology, The New Abject invites leading authors to respond to two parallel theories of the abject – Julia Kristeva’s theory of the psychoanalytic, intimate abject, and Georges Bataille’s societal equivalent – with visceral stories of modern unease. As we become ever-more isolated by social media bubbles, or the demands for social distancing, our moral gag-reflex is increasingly sensitised, and our ability to tolerate difference, or ‘the other’, atrophies. Like all good horror writing, these stories remind us that exposure to what unsettles us, even in small doses, is always better than pretending it doesn’t exist. After all, we can never be wholly free of that which belongs to us.

Lara Williams

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