Winner of the 1997 William J. Crawford Memorial Award (for a first fantasy novel), this utopian, archetypal story follows five generations of women--from the monumental, sadistic despot to her great-great-granddaughter working in a warehouse--through their travels away from and toward one another. Loves and deaths are passed through the generations, collected on their successive journeys, each restless character setting others in motion as she seeks freedom and kinship. Candas Jane Dorsey's concise language is powerful, telling an intense story without emotional plateaus, only peaks and valleys, joy and grief. This is an involving, unsettling book. It is easily one of the best and most ambitious novels of 1996 and one that will provoke thought and conversation.