Lee Kofman

What do you do when your husband claims to be madly in love with you, but doesn't desire you sexually? When your therapist is more interested in opening an online sex-toy shop with your husband than in saving your marriage? Do you try yet another counsellor, get divorced or settle for a sexless marriage? Lee Kofman, rebellious daughter of ultra-orthodox Jews, has always sought her own way. True to her Bohemian dream where love can coexist with sexual freedom, she decided to experiment with an open marriage . . . despite the fact that her previous non-monogamous relationship ended in disaster. Our cultural mores suggest that love without monogamy is impossible, but Lee hoped she could do better the second time round and embarked on a personal exploration to find out whether she could save her marriage while being non-monogamous in an ethical way. For several months she talked to swingers, polyamorists, cross-dressers, suburban families, artists and migrants—in short, to anyone who has ever been involved in an unconventional relationship. Set during Lee's first years in Australia, it is also the story of migration, and an exploration of the eternal conflict between our desire for security, but also for foreign places—in love and elsewhere. The Dangerous Bride tells the story of her quest.

A memoir of love, gods and geography

The Dangerous Bride

A Simon & Schuster eBook. Simon & Schuster has a great book for every reader.

Emotional honesty in a writer's art, craft and life

The Writer Laid Bare

Andrew Mcdonald

Carolyn Court

David Cohen

Claire Thomas

Paul Dawson

Andrew Morgan

Leanne Hall

Ellie Campbell

Mischa Merz

Melanie Joosten

Euan Mitchell

Adele Smith

John Holton

Jane Ormond

Nathan Curnow

Rachel Leary

Scott McDermott

Rose Mulready

Ann Bloch

Brook Dunnell

Caroline Petite

Daniel Wynn

Helen Addision-Smith

Jamie Buchanan

Julia Inglis

Leigh Coyle

Lucy Lawson

Melissa Bruce

Mira Cuturilo

Phil Guy

Ryan Paine

Sean M. Whelan

Paula Hunt

Cardigan Press are back with a new collection of fiction sourced from across Australia. Stories fall into sections that pass through the night with darkening themes: "Bedtime Stories", "Brink of Midnight", "Through the Looking Glass" and "Hallucinatory Bird Songs". New fiction meets pop culture in this collection that's all about getting postcards of your disappeared boyfriend, meeting Hemingway on the train, pretty exploding mosquitos and winning the race to the mixing bowl.

Fiction That Burns at Both Ends

Allnighter

Emotional Honesty in a Writer's Art, Craft and Life

By the time she was eleven and living in the Soviet Union, Lee Kofman had undergone several major operations on both a defective heart and injuries sustained in a bus accident. Her body harbours a constellation of disfiguring scars that have shaped her sense of self and her view of the world. But it wasn’t until she moved to Israel and later to Australia that she came to think these markings weren’t badges of honour to flaunt but were, in fact, imperfections that needed to be hidden away. In a captivating mix of memoir and cultural critique, Kofman casts a questioning eye on the myths surrounding our conception of physical perfection and what it’s like to live in a body that deviates from the norm. She reveals the subtle ways we are all influenced by the bodies we inhabit, whether our differences are pronounced or noticeable only to ourselves. She talks to people of all shapes, sizes and configurations and takes a hard look at the way media and culture tell us how bodies should and shouldn’t be. Illuminating, confronting and deeply personal, Imperfect challenges us all to consider how we exist in the world and how our bodies shape the people we become.

How Our Bodies Shape the People We Become

Imperfect

In this compelling anthology of personal essays, curated by award-winning author Lee Kofman, some of Australia’s most beloved writers reveal, for the first time, powerful, occasionally funny and often heartbreaking stories of significant endings and their aftermath. Graeme Simsion, author of The Rosie Project, shares how he discarded his past – perhaps autistic – self, while comedian Sami Shah writes about his public split from Islam, the religion of his birth. Ramona Koval delves into the bittersweet end to her career at the ABC and Fiona Wright explores how her anorexia has affected her romantic relationships. Whereas Kate Holden suggests that for some, splitting – whether from memorabilia, books or lovers – is unimaginable. Join eighteen acclaimed storytellers in their candid and courageous reflections on the intrinsic human experience of loss and leaving, that acknowledge the price we can often pay for a much-needed end, or new beginning.

Split

Lee Kofman

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