Shebooks imprint: 70 books

What’s a Nigerian-Nordic-American girl to do when she develops fibroids in rural Iowa? Battle the American health care system or summon Nordic mythology and traditional Nigerian medicine? While at the renowned Iowa Writers’ Workshop to write a book about meeting her African father and siblings...

Dr. Mary Lake Polan takes us on a compelling journey into Eritrea, where she started a surgical clinic to offer life-changing care to African women. She and her team repair fistulas, a condition that results from traumatic births and leads many African women to lives of stigma and shame. Dr. Polan...

What I Wish You’d Told Me is a collection of three stories of women of various ages grappling with the wacky and the tragic in their lives. “Secrets,” set in the ’60s, is the gripping story of a teenage girl whose illusions about her best friend’s family are blasted along with her faith...

Sonya Huber’s memoir takes us behind the scenes in one of the most invisible professions in the United States: direct care. Huber went into the field of direct care work in mental health hoping to make a difference in the lives of teenagers, and planning for a career in social work. What she encountered...

Three stories reflecting California’s intense pressures and addictions: Sparkling Arabella, high on crystal meth astride a Harley, ascends into the stars. Will she find grace at last? A boy, a girl, and a dog meet in the Viper Room, looking for love on the eve of a devastating Los Angeles earthquake....

In these two tales of obsessive love, Elizabeth Geoghegan, author of The Marco Chronicles, creates vivid portraits of strong women blinded by a weakness for a certain kind of guy—heartless, but impossible to resist. Whether her heroines are caught up in the chaos of Bangkok or lured into the deep...

It’s not just moms who are struggling with the work-family juggle; more dads are suffering from the stress of unreachable expectations and incompatible commitments. Now, in this second phase of the women’s movement, one of the founding editors of Ms. magazine says men can be allies, not enemies, if they use their power (earned or not) to protect their families.

Constellation of Boys explores the teenage life of Kayla through her relationships with a succession of boys and men. The daughter of a single mother who has her own issues with men, Kayla looks back at her boy-crazy adolescence boy by boy—from early crushes on her older brother’s friends when she is just ten to live-in boyfriends in her later adolescent years.

Annie Burke floats aimlessly through her twenties until she bumps into a former high school crush: Freddie Marcatelli, captain of all the teams and still a local star. As they start to date, her suspicion that they’re from different universes is confirmed when she invites him to visit her mother’s...

Every woman who waited to have a child will understand this story. Eileen Stukane’s determination to become a mother led her to adoption. When agencies said she was “too old,” she found a country that considered her young. She would not be stopped—until a mystery in Italy almost ended everything....

Five personal essays and one short play by six gifted and bestselling American writers—Meg Wolitzer, Louise Erdrich, Beverly Lowry, Diane Johnson, the late Veronica Geng, and the late Alice Adams—capture compelling memories of summer. The subjects include swimming, gardening, cabins in the wilderness, days spent reading, summer love, and a thwarted attempt to go bowling on a hot night.

Camille, Rosanna, and Joanne are three former models who’ve been the best of friends since their runway days. They may have gained a little cellulite, but they’ve also packed on a whole lot of wit and savvy. Their Sex and the City–like escapades in Manhattan’s high-end hotel bars, their heartbreaks...

Ona Gritz has had cerebral palsy all her life, but until she gave birth to her son, she didn’t really understand what it meant to be disabled. Her cerebral palsy affects her coordination and balance but not enough to have ever truly hindered her. “For the most part, I considered my disability...

The friendship of two tightly knit New York City couples whose bond isn’t quite what it seems threatens to unravel after the publication of a story in a well-known literary magazine that bears a strange resemblance to their real life. This wry, urban novelette blurs the lines between love and lust,...