Ajay Close - What Doesn't Kill Us

March is Women’s History Month, an important opportunity to raise awareness of the achievements of women throughout history and in contemporary society. As part of our Women’s History Month celebrations Glasgow Libraries are delighted to offer a range of free author talks and creative writing workshops with inspiring female authors in libraries across the city.

For our first event we welcome author Ajay Close to Drumchapel Library on Monday 3^rd March to discuss her new novel What Doesn’t Kill Us, winner of Scotland's National Book Awards 2024 Fiction Book of the Year.

What Doesn’t Kill Us combines the tension of a police procedural with the power and passion of the women’s lib movement. By turns emotional, action-packed and darkly funny, Ajay’s “Vivid and visceral” (Val McDermid) novel reveals just how much the world has changed since the 1970s – and how much it hasn’t.

A killer stalks the streets of Leeds. Every man is a suspect. Every woman is at risk. But in a house on Cleopatra Street, women are fighting back.

It’s the eve of the 1980s. PC Liz Seeley joins the squad investigating the murders. With a violent boyfriend at home and male chauvinist pigs at work, she is drawn to a feminist collective led by the militant and uncompromising Rowena. There she meets Charmaine – young, Black, artistic, and fighting discrimination on two fronts.

As the list of victims grows and police fail to catch the killer, women across the north are too terrified to go out after dark. To the feminists, the Butcher is a symptom of wider misogyny. Their anger finds an outlet in violence and Liz is torn between loyalty to them and her duty as a police officer. Which way will she jump?

To book your free place please email: drumchapel.lil@glasgowlife.org.uk or phone Drumchapel Library: 0141 276 1545.