Animal

Joan has spent her whole life putting up with the cruelty of men. When one of them commits an act of violence in front of her in New York City, she leaves the city at once and heads for Los Angeles, where Alice lives. Alice is the only person alive who can help Joan understand her past.

Joan settles in the sweltering hills above Los Angeles and works through a horrific event she witnessed as a child, one that has stayed with her every waking moment. As she faces it, she builds the strength to strike back at last.

This is a literary novel about female rage, told with a raw, visceral edge. It looks at the damage done by a male-dominated society through one woman's shift from prey to predator. The mood is dark and intense, with violence in both the present and the past.

It is the first novel by Lisa Taddeo, who previously wrote the nonfiction book Three Women.