Wonderful Women by the Sea

Monika Fagerholm's Wonderful Women by the Sea conjures the magical aura of the early sixties and the lives of two young Americanized women in Finland caught up in those historic times. In exquisite and daring language, Fagerholm explores the world of Rosa and Isabella, two would-be starlets in an age of consumerism and glamorous one-night stands. They spend their days sunbathing on the beach and their evenings at cocktail parties, following the exploits of Jackie Kennedy and Elizabeth Taylor through the glossy pages of Life magazine. But dark undercurrents threaten to undermine the sanctity of their domestic oasis by the sea. As Tupperware parties give way to the women's movement, Rosa and Isabella can't avoid the social and political upheaval that explodes across the world in the turbulent summer of 1968 - changes that forever strip away the innocence we now associate with the sixties.

Monika Fagerholm was born and lives in Helsinki, Finland. She has published two collections of short stories, Sham in 1987 and Patricia in 1990. Wonderful Women by the Sea is her first novel.