Beauty

The acclaimed author of Eggshell Skull.

You were either fit and trim or you weren't working hard enough. Your body was how you conveyed wealth and status to your peers, it was a personality trait, a symbol of goodness and values: an ethical ideal. In recent decades women have made momentous progress fighting the patriarchy, yet they are held to ever-stricter, more punishing physical standards. Self-worth still plummets and eating disorders are more deadly for how easily they are dismissed. In Beauty Bri Lee explores our obsession with thinness and asks how an intrinsically unattainable standard of physical 'perfection' has become so crucial to so many. What happens if you try to reach that impossible goal? Bri did try, and Beauty is what she learned from that battle: a gripping and intelligent rejection of an ideal that diminishes us all. Praise for Eggshell Skull:

“Bri Lee is a woman to watch because she’s doing things her way. This is just the beginning.” HARPER’S BAZAAR

“Dark, sparkling . . . Lee’s voice is warm and surprising; her writing fizzes with energy, ideas and great sentences.” AUSTRALIAN BOOK REVIEW, ‘Books of the Year’

“Bri Lee isn’t afraid to ask the questions that need to be asked. She is bravery at its best.” MARIE CLAIRE

“Fierce and vulnerable, confident and insecure, determined and doubtful, such contradictions make this memoir compelling and courageous.” DAILY TELEGRAPH

“This book sears with white-hot feminist rage . . . Lee shows in forensic detail the heroic strength and determination it takes to bear the arcane apparatus of the law. She draws the reader along at such pace and emotional intensity it is simply impossible to leave the book alone…This honest exploration of the devastation that abuse wreaks is made for—and perhaps emboldened by—these times, and Lee’s openness enables her clear-eyed purpose to ignite discussion and instigate reform. This outstanding book is already a publishing highlight of 2018.” READINGS

“Lee walks a precarious line with incredible control, is never exploitative or voyeuristic, and remains frank and articulate . . . Above all, Lee is simply a good writer. She tells her story with remarkable empathy, vulnerability and clever, even humorous, prose . . . Eggshell Skull will leave you feeling triumphant and crushed. Sitting at my kitchen table after reading the final page, I put it down and cried.” GOOD READING

© 2020 Wavesound from W. F. Howes Ltd (Audiobook): 9781528894630

Release date

Audiobook: 1 March 2020