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Our Better Natures
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Our Better Natures

By: Sophie Ward
Narrated by: Laurel Lefkow
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Pre-order for $26.59

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About this listen

Amid the chaos and political upheaval of 1970s America, three very different women must accept the world as it is, or act to change it.

Phyllis Patterson is a housewife in White Plains, Illinois. Her son Jimmy returns to the family home from Vietnam with a Korean wife and two children. Blindsided by these new additions, Phyllis's small-town world is turned upside down in more ways than she could have ever imagined.

Andrea Dworkin is an activist in Amsterdam. Having fled her abusive husband and their life together, she finds herself desperate for answers, for herself and the world around her. An encounter with Noam Chomsky and Michel Foucault at their infamous Dutch debate provokes her burgeoning independence. Returning to America she will embody a revolution, no matter the price.

Muriel Rukeyser is a poet in New York. Despite protestations from her lover, Monica, Muriel insists on campaigning against injustice, using her words as weapons and pushing her body to its limits. In this era of political unrest, Muriel's life stands as a testament to the possibility of creative resistance.

©2026 Sophie Ward (P)2026 Bolinda Publishing Genre Fiction Literary Fiction Small Town & Rural

Critic Reviews

'Our Better Natures is potent and beguiling. It makes one see with a better eye.' (Laura Carlin, author of The Wicked Cometh)
'Our Better Natures is an absolute marvel.' (Nancy Crane, author of The Sacred Andean Codes)
'Our Better Natures is a stunning meditation on hope, its fragile insistence, driven by Sophie Ward's singular wit and astounding philosophical playfulness. It cements Ward's place as one of our most inventive, inquisitive, & alert novelists working today.' (Margot Douaihy, author of Scorched Grace)
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