Bare and breaking (Paperback)

Never unruly, always controlled, Karen Schimke’s debut collection from Modjaji Books is an exploration of longing and lust, heartbreak and recovery, the wild heart fully alive. In Bare & Breaking Schimke gives full voice to the territory of a rich and keenly observed life, with a narrator who is engaged in every anguished moment, living it wholly and documenting the passion and blissful respite. Simultaneously delicate and demanding Schimke’s confessional narrator knows no shame, brooks no self-pity and draws the reader impatiently into her bedroom, the scene of the crime. She exposes her sheets and compels one to gaze upon her open jaw and naked breasts. She reveals both her bare and breaking heart and the tender ‘Denial’ of her imaginary post-divorce email.