Author(s): various

Fiction.

'It wouldn't be bad, I thought, having another wife around to help shoulder the burden of the house, kids, Rick,' says the narrator in Stephanie Johnson's story 'Mother Maryam', while Suzy in Lindsey Dawson's 'longed to be in the water, like the blonde, slicing through the turquoise with a jewel in her belly-button, strong, slender arms pulling her towards the man with the six-pack.'

The women in these diverse stories have different dreams but ones that we can immediately recognise. We can understand as they battle with their bodies, such as Lucy in Emma Neale's 'Real Pregnancy Tales' who 'was sick every time she smelt her husband's breath' or Emily in Sarah-Kate Lynch's story who 'found a lump'. These are stories that reflect our experiences and introduce us to new ones, they are moving, they are entertaining, they are about us.

They are also about a good cause, for with every copy sold, a donation of $3 will be paid to the Breast Cancer Research Trust. The stories are by a range of top British authors, Kate Atkinson, Claire Calman, Rachel Cusk, Stella Duffy, Helen Dunmore, Joanne Harris, Rachel Seiffert and Joanna Trollope and New Zealand writers: Diane Brown, Barbara Else, Lindsey Dawson, Marilyn Duckworth, Fiona Farrell, Patricia Grace, Eirlys Hunter, Stephanie Johnson, Shonagh Koea, Sarah-Kate Lynch, Emma Neale, Jenny Pattrick, Sue Reidy, Judith White, Donna Wright.