The Body, the Monster & the Transformation: Our Wives Under The Sea

A three part series exploring: what happens when women’s bodies become strange, frightening or unknowable? This autumn, we explore the horrors of womanhood through three very different books. Moving from the uncanny body to the monster and, finally, transformation, we’ll examine how literature and mythology have imagined and feared women’s bodies, desires, anger and identities. Come as you are. Leave a little more awake. Pt. 3: Our Wives Under The Sea To end, we go somewhere more emotionally unsettling. Our Wives is a strange, intimate horror story about love, disappearance, grief and bodily transformation. It's particularly good for following Machado because both books are interested in the body becoming unfamiliar — but Armfield turns that horror inward, toward intimacy and loss. Thus we conclude the season on transformation rather than simply violence: marriage, grief, care, desire, ecological anxiety, the unknowability of another person and the limits of intimacy. What to Expect: This is not a space for perfect interpretations or polished opinions. We gather to: – speak closely, or simply listen – explore desire, boundaries, and self-definition – sit with ambiguity rather than resolve it too quickly – connect literature with lived experience Expect a conversation that drifts between the personal and the political, the intimate and the collective. Why Join This Session? Because the body is political. Because the things women* are taught to fear, hide and control can tell us a lot about power. Because horror gives us a way to confront the uncomfortable, and sometimes monstrous, realities of womanhood. Because some of the most meaningful conversations happen when strangers gather around a book and leave feeling a little less like strangers. Reserve your spot with the commitment to show up! Spaces are limited to keep the circle intimate and we now charge 5 euros to cover our organising costs and also to hold you accountable! We rely on you being there to make this work. Bring your copy, your curiosity, your questions or just yourself.