Feminist Book Club: January 2026

For our first 📚💖Feminist Book Club💖📚  of 2026, we’re reading Theory and Practice: A Novel by Michelle de Kretser.

From the publisher:
It’s 1986, and “beautiful, radical ideas” are in the air. The narrator of Theory & Practice, a young woman originally from Sri Lanka, arrives in Melbourne for graduate school to research the novels of Virginia Woolf. In the bohemian neighborhood of St. Kilda she meets artists, activists, students—and Kit. He claims to be in a “deconstructed relationship.” They become lovers, and the narrator’s feminism comes up against her jealousy. Meanwhile, an entry in Woolf’s diary upends what the narrator knows about her literary idol, and throws her own work into disarray.

What happens when our desires run contrary to our beliefs? What should we do when the failings of revered figures come to light? Who is shamed when the truth is told? Michelle de Kretser’s new novel offers a spellbinding meditation on the moral complexities that arise in the gap between our values and our lives.

🗓 Wednesday, January 21
🕕 6pm
📍Poinciana Paper Press, 12 Parkgate Road.

“Theory & Practice is a thrillingly original hybrid work that seeks truthful answers to the most difficult questions of the day—questions about the nature of love, art, and desire, about the thorny cultural legacy of colonialism and the unappeasable human yearning for connection.” —Sigrid Nunez, author of The Vulnerables

de Krester’s latest novel has been widely lauded as the Winner of The Stella Prize, A New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice, A Best Fiction Book of the Year from The Washington Post, A Most Anticipated Book of the Year from Our Culture Magazine, and A Most Anticipated Book of the Year from The Millions.

Get it in hardcopy, ebook, or audiobook format and join the discussion!

🔗 REGISTER: tiny.cc/fbc2026