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A Novel
by Jen Fawkes
An epic novel about Civil War-era Nashville's "public women," an age-old secret society, and the earth-shaking power of the female
In 1862, after a tragedy at home, twenty-two-year-old Sylvie Swift parts ways with her twin brother to trace the origins of an enigmatic playscript that's landed on their doorstep. This text leads her to Nashville, an occupied city bustling with soldiers, saboteurs, partisans, powerful men--and powerful women. Sylvie translates the playscript by day, but at night, drawn into the work by the chief of the Union Army's Secret Service, she acts as a spy.
Both endeavors acquaint her with a sisterhood whose members—including Hannah, a fiery revolutionary to whom Sylvie is increasingly drawn—possess potentially monstrous powers. Sylvie soon becomes entangled in the Cult of Chaos, a feminist society steadfast in its ancient mission to eradicate the violence of men.
Inspired by Aristophanes' Lysistrata and the true story of Nashville's attempt to exile its prostitutes during the American Civil War, Daughters of Chaos weaves together "found" texts, fabulism, and queer themes to question familiar notions of history and family, warfare and power.
"Fawkes wows with this wildly original tale." —Publishers Weekly
"Jen Fawkes's writing—and her characters—are ferociously, radiantly compelling in Daughters of Chaos. Like the best historical fiction, this speaks to the reader and the times in which she lives." ―Kelly Link, author of The Book of Love
"Daughters of Chaos is a deeply feminist story that weaves together Greek mythology, Civil War history, sisterhood, fire, sex, and love. Fawkes creates a delicious tapestry as she layers found text, journal entries and letters, narrative and playwriting, resulting in a lush and immersive novel. From Ephesus to Nashville and beyond, Fawkes's wide perspective allows her to shine light on women lost to time while embracing surprising parallels that will delight any fan of the classics. Her dramatis personae sing long after you've closed the book." ―Elizabeth Gonzalez James, author of Mona at Sea and The Bullet Swallower
"Daughters of Chaos lives up to its name! Celebrating the messiness of women's lives and struggles against the backdrop of the Civil War, Daughters of Chaos delivers a world that feels both real and surreal, a history that is itself steeped in our primordial stories about who we can and cannot be and who we can and cannot love." ―Gwen E. Kirby, author of Shit Cassandra Saw
This information about Daughters of Chaos was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Jen Fawkes is the author of Mannequin and Wife, a 2020 Shirley Jackson Award Nominee, winner of the2023 Phillip H. McMath Post-Publication Book Award, and a Foreword Indies gold medalist. Her collection Tales the Devil Told Me was a Foreword Indies silver medalist, a Largehearted Boy Favorite Collection of 2021, and a finalist for the 2022 World Fantasy Award for Single-Author Story Collection. Her fiction won the 2021 Porter Fund Literary Prize and has appeared in One Story, Lit Hub, The Iowa Review, Best Small Fictions, and more. A two-time finalist for the Calvino Prize for fabulist fiction, Jen lives in Little Rock, Arkansas.
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