
Lori Lansens, author of the bestseller The Girls, is back with a new novel, published by Virago in February 2010.
In The Wife's Tale, Lori brings us her most complex and compelling heroine yet: Mary Gooch, a shy, lonely, anxious woman whose alienation from her own life is reflected in her morbidly obese body, a vast prison from which she cannot escape. The Wife's Tale is a hopeful and humane novel about a woman's discovery, ultimately, of the forgotten self she has hidden away for too long.
Lori recently spoke to her Canadian publisher, Random House, taking questions from her readers and fans as part of a live-streamed video event. You can view a series of short videos recorded during the event at www.booklounge.ca or YouTube.
Two Virago titles will feature on Channel 4's brand new TV Book Club series this month. Sarah Waters' The Little Stranger and Sarah Dunant's Sacred Hearts are two of the ten books that have been chosen.
See the news page for more information.
Somaly Mam was named as one of Time Magazine's 100 most influential people of 2009. Seen below with Michelle Obama, Somaly was one of the select few chosen to speak at the Time Magazine dinner where this year's luminaries were announced. She lives near Phnom Penh with her three children.

Read Angelina Jolie's endorsement of Somaly Mam's inclusion in the Time Magazine 100.
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The Group
by Mary McCarthy
The Group follows eight graduates from exclusive Vassar College as they find love and heartbreak, forge careers, gossip and party in 1930s Manhattan. The Group can be seen as the original Sex and the City. It is the first novel to frankly portray women's real lives, exploring subjects such as sex, contraception, motherhood and marriage.
Hilary Mantel said of The Group 'absorbing, funny, painful ... a beautifully managed novel ... I consider it a masterpiece'. Read the wonderful feature from The Observer.