Circle Outside [Paperback]

It’s the early 1980s, and a household of lesbian feminists establish a women-only commune in an ancient Californian redwood forest. It seems a perfect place to practice the ritual magic that helps them function harmoniously as a group – even if they aren’t all true believers. By getting back to the land, they can also live more as nature intended and give the finger to the Patriarchy. That doesn’t stop jealousies arising, as Wren, an artist, nurses an unrequited crush on Robin, the land’s extraordinarily generous owner. Further conflict brews as Gloria, the manipulative leader of the group, disagrees with Robin about her own rule: no men on the land.

​Warm, funny and harking unashamedly back to a less toxic era,A Circle Outsideis a seductive vision of a utopian dream, where the only real magic is self-transformation.

A Circle Outside is an entertaining as well as educational read, easy to read and delightful. It concerns a more innocent time of the 1980s and in many ways is a sort of time capsule of that period in womens social history. Remarkably, many of the issues dissected in the novel are extremely relevant today, particularly the discussions around monogamy and polyamory. Sisters were doing it for themselves! The Bay Area Reporter

The primary setting ofA Circle Outsideis at the end of Bonny Doon Road, which allowed Rosewood to write extensively about the redwood forests&'I really tried my best to describe what its like to lie on your back in the middle of a redwood circle and look up and have a significant conversation with a friend,' she said. Santa Cruz Sentinel

Feminism has a reputation for being dour, Rosewood says, and she wanted to undermine that perception. With the fractured wisdom of the present, it would have been tempting to parody the 80s, but Rosewoods satirical moments are loving rather than dismissive. She says shels-