A groundbreaking volume from Lamda Award-winning editors Naomi Holoch and Joan Nestle, The Vintage Book of International  Lesbian Fiction presents a range of literary voices--from twenty-seven countries spanning six continents--and offers glimpses of lesbian life in unfamilar, often exotic climes.



We follow an Irish woman as she travels through time in search of a wronged maiden, and anticipate the harrowing fate of a married Indian woman who pursues pleasure with her female lover under the shadow of her husbands suspicious rage.  We meet a teacher in Barcelona who locks herself up in her grandmother's house with her young Columbian student, and witness a Slovenian woman's rendezvous with her long dead lover.



This collection includes the work of familiar writers, as well as a number never before published in English.  From the West Indies to Eastern Europe, the Middle East to Southeast Asia, Latin America to South Africa, the distinctive stories found in these pages evoke the diverse political, cultural, emotional, and sexual landscapes of each writer's life.  A groundbreaking volume from the Lamda Award-winning editors Naomi Holoch and Joan Nestle, who also wrote the introduction, this collections evokes the universal urgency of persistent desire.



Table of Contents:
Mary Dorcey, Ireland from A Noise from the WoodshedMakeda Sivera, Jamaica Caribbean ChameleonMireille Best, France Stéphanie's BookChristina Peri Rossi, Uruguay Final Judgement and Singing in the DesertShani Mootoo, India-Trinidad-Canada Lemon ScentMarguerite Yourcenar, Belgium Sappho or SuicideEmma Donoghue, Ireland Looking for PetronillaSylvia Molloy, Argentinafrom Certificate of AbsenceDale Gunthorp, South Africa GypsophilaKaren Williams, South Africa The Came at DawnCynthia Price, South Africa Lesbian BedroomsAlifa Rifaat, Egypt My World of the UnknownYasmin V. Tambiah, Sri Lanka The Civil War, Sandalwood, Transl(iter)ation I, and Transl(iter)ation II (for Aruna and Giti)Dionne Brand, Trinidad Madame Alaird's BreastsViolette Leduc, Francefrom L'AphyxieAnchee Min, Chinafrom Red AzaleaGerd Brantenberg, Norwayfrom Four WindsEsther Tusquets, Spainfrom The Same Sea as Every SummerKaren-Susan Fessel, Germany Lost FacesMar$#237;a Eugenia Alegría Nuñez, Cuba The Girl Typist Who Worked for a Provincial Ministry of CultureNgahuia Te Awekatuku, Aotearoa/New Zealand Paretipua, Old Man Tuna, and Watching the Big GirlsDacia Maraini, Italyfrom Letters to MarinaRosamaría Roffiel, Mexico Forever Lasts Only a Full MoonAnna Blaman, Hollandfrom Lonely AdventureChrista Winsloe, Germanyfrom The Child ManuelaAchy Obejas, Cuba WatersNicole Brossard, Canadafrom Mauve DesertGila Svirsky, Israel Meeting NataliaMaureen Duffy, Englandfrom The MicrocosmJeanne D'Arc Jutras, Canadafrom GeorgieSuzana Tratnik, Slovenia Under the Ironwood TreesElena Georgiou, Cyprus Aphrodite's VisionEtel Adnan, Lebanonfrom In the Heart of the Heart of Another CountryGina Schein, Australia Minnie Gets Married


From the Trade Paperback edition.