Summer Brennan is a journalist and author. She received the 2016 Matthew Power Literary Reporting Award and was a visiting scholar at the Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute at New York University. Her first book, The Oyster War: The True Story of a Small Farm, Big Politics, and the Future of Wilderness in America (2015) was a finalist for the 2016 Orion Book Award. A longtime consultant for the United Nations, her writing has appeared in New York Magazine, Scientific American, McSweeney's, the San Francisco Chronicle, and elsewhere. She lives in Brooklyn and New Mexico.

[B]risk, readable … Brennan circles around the shoes from all angles, and her brief chapters add up to a kaleidoscopic view of feminine public existence, both wide-ranging and thoughtful.

• Part One The Garden of Forking PathsPart Two Daphne in Flight, Daphne in FlowerPart Three Ashes, Sea Foam, Glass, GoldPart Four The MinotaurPart Five A Goddess At The End of the WorldAcknowledgementsSelected BibliographyIndex