Alice Martin – författare

'An audacious first novel to set beside Margaret Atwood's provocative first novel The Edible Woman' JOYCE CAROL OATES'Intimate, nostalgic, and downright terrifying' OLIVIA GATWOOD'Haunting, nostalgic and sharply observant' WOMAN'S WEEKLY_____________________________________________________________________________It starts with an itch.In 1970s America, in homes across the country, women ages eighteen to thirty-five begin to slow down.Tired. Blank. Restless.Drawn to the Pacific Ocean like it's calling them home, they abandon their lives -- jobs, families, their very selves. And once they reach the West, they vanish forever.At the center of the story are three young women caught in the pull of something unstoppable.Aimee follows the trail of her missing best friend to a man called the Piper -- known for leading infected women West.Teenie, afflicted and unraveling, clings to a single memory as she looks out the window of the Piper's van.And Eve, a former journalist, is chasing the story that might just consume her . . ._____________________________________________________________________________'An all-American fever dream' LEE CLAY JOHNSON'A speculative feminist road trip thriller unlike any other' GINA CHUNG'Taut and shocking' ANNA NORTHREADERS ARE RAVING:⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 'Impeccable . . . Westward Women will lure you in and not let you go'⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐'What an insanely beautiful story . . . Exquisite. No notes'⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 'Fresh and memorable . . . I was immediately hooked'⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐'I loved this. What a visceral and beautiful encapsulation of what being a woman is like'⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 'Unsettling, urgent, and downright unforgettable'⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 'I would give it ten stars if I could. This book completely blew me away. Haunting, timely, and beautifully written'

In the summer of 1973, a mysterious infection spurs women across the United States to leave their homes and migrate toward the Pacific Ocean. At a loss for what causes the infection, how it's spread, or what it may ultimately cause women to do, the public refers to the 700,000 women who go missing simply as 'the westward women'.Three women are caught in the infection's riptide. Cautious twenty-two-year-old Aimee goes in search of her enigmatic, newly infected childhood friend, only to find herself haunted by the voices of other westward women everywhere she goes. Meanwhile, Eve, an ambitious young journalist, is determined to prove her worth by writing a story about a man she hears is collecting infected women across the country. Finally, infected sixteen-year-old Teenie, still grieving from the loss of her sister, begins traveling with a man known only as the Piper, who claims to protect girls like her...

Unions face a once in a generation opportunity for renewal. Decades of decline have been compounded by a global elite who increasingly generate profit from financial engineering in ways that side-step labour and undermine the power of organised workers.However, as this economic system begins to falter, there are signs of a renewed union movement emerging. Debt-laden firms – from supermarkets and nursery chains to outsourcing giants – are collapsing, and workers are organising to determine what comes next. Unionised bank cashiers are refusing to push predatory loans, teachers are striking against the exploitative housing market, and manufacturing workers are pooling redundancy pay to buy-out plants and become worker owners.Alice Martin and Annie Quick argue that these are seeds of union renewal. To be effective in an age of finance, the union movement must set its ambitions beyond narrow wage-bargaining, and towards the financial systems that have infiltrated workplaces and impoverished communities. By doing so, they can play a critical role in ushering in a new, democratic economy.No-one committed to economic justice can afford to miss this urgent, highly original book and its radical vision for unions.

Unions face a once in a generation opportunity for renewal. Decades of decline have been compounded by a global elite who increasingly generate profit from financial engineering in ways that side-step labour and undermine the power of organised workers.However, as this economic system begins to falter, there are signs of a renewed union movement emerging. Debt-laden firms – from supermarkets and nursery chains to outsourcing giants – are collapsing, and workers are organising to determine what comes next. Unionised bank cashiers are refusing to push predatory loans, teachers are striking against the exploitative housing market, and manufacturing workers are pooling redundancy pay to buy-out plants and become worker owners.Alice Martin and Annie Quick argue that these are seeds of union renewal. To be effective in an age of finance, the union movement must set its ambitions beyond narrow wage-bargaining, and towards the financial systems that have infiltrated workplaces and impoverished communities. By doing so, they can play a critical role in ushering in a new, democratic economy.No-one committed to economic justice can afford to miss this urgent, highly original book and its radical vision for unions.