...in one of the most unexpectedly poignant and prickly novels we've come across, that's kinda-sorta what kicks off And She Was, which QPB's brilliant, opinionate and passionate Alaya has been championing for months. Here's what she had to say:

Dear Reader,

The first thing I loved about And She Wasis its play off the classic, trippy song from the ’80s. The second thing I loved about this perceptive novel is its tough, conflicted narrator, Brandy. Her reason for coming to a hardscrabble boomtown in the Aleutian Islands is straightforward: “Of course, I was following a man. Women just don’t come out here on their own. Not women like me anyway.”
        Interspersed with Brandy’s snappy narration are the tales of several generations of Aleut women (spanning the 18th century to the present) who cope with the colonial destruction of their society by wresting power for themselves, in defiance of the devastating consequences.
        Colonialism and culture, gender and empowerment—all themes that have been explored ad nauseum in today’s literature. But never quite like this.

Alaya Johnson
Editorial Assistant, QPB