The Force of Such Beauty by Barbara Bourland
From Penguin Random House:
Barbara Bourland’s stunning third novel, a phantasmagorical fable of love and marriage, is her most ambitious and inventive book to date. Inspired by the alleged escape attempts of real-life princesses, The Force of Such Beauty is both the story of an idealistic young woman trapped by a corrupt promise, and a deeply moving reminder that power structures around the world ultimately rest on the subjugation of women’s bodies.
Book jacket for the first edition published by Dutton in 2022, designed by Kaitlin Kall with Daria Cohen’s Zangezi. Art direction by Jason Booher.
“This is not your grandma’s fairy tale… Bourland’s brilliant satire skewers the theatrics of power, excessive materialism and economic corruption.” — The Washington Post
