The battle of the sexes goes to college in this smart, thrilling debut by university English professor Sarah Henstra. University student Karen is swept up in back-to-school revelry and when she wakes up after a frat party lying on the lawn of Raghurst, a house of radical feminists, she gets a crash course in anti-frat activism on campus. GBC (‘Gang Bang Central’) is especially notorious, she learns, with several names featured on a list of date rapists compiled by female students.Despite continuing to party at GBC and even dating one of the brothers, Karen is seduced by the intellectual stimulation and indomitable spirit of the Raghurst women. As Karen finds herself caught between two increasingly polarized camps, her feminist housemates believe they have hit on the perfect way to expose and bring down the fraternity as a symbol of rape culture… but the war between the houses will exact a terrible price.The Red Word offers a lyrical yet eyes-wide-open account of the epic clash between fraternities’ time-honoured ‘right to party’ and young women’s demands for sexual safety and respect. With strains of The Marriage Plot and reminiscent of the work of Zadie Smith, Donna Tartt and Tom Wolfe, The Red Word arrives on the wings of furies.
The Red Word by Sarah Henstra was published on 21 March by Tramp Press
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PRAISE FOR THE RED WORD
'An aesthetically arresting interrogation of rape culture . . . Timely and brilliant.' --Kirkus Reviews
'An incisive campus novel . . . [The Red Word] raises essential questions surrounding class privilege, rape, and gendered power dynamics on campus.' --Publishers Weekly
'Henstra draws on Greek mythology to comment on contemporary issues how assault can take on ambiguity and how the internalization of rape culture convolutes gender politics, to the point where constructive conversation is nearly impossible.' --New Yorker
'An incisive campus novel . . . [The Red Word] raises essential questions surrounding class privilege, rape, and gendered power dynamics on campus.' --Publishers Weekly
'Henstra draws on Greek mythology to comment on contemporary issues how assault can take on ambiguity and how the internalization of rape culture convolutes gender politics, to the point where constructive conversation is nearly impossible.' --New Yorker
“The Red Word echoes
Donna Tartt’s The Secret History –
but there is nothing derivative about Henstra’s tale.
The Red
Word is a beautifully written, gripping take on the battle
between the sexes” --The Financial Times
Sarah Henstra is a writer and professor, specializing in 20th century British fiction and teaching at Ryerson. She's a board member of Canadian Creative Writers and Programs (CCWWP), and is on the steering committee of the 2016 Canadian Writers Summit.
Sarah teach courses in the novel, the Gothic, fairy tales, women's fiction, and creative writing. She lives and works in Toronto.
The Red Word is her adult fiction debut.
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