Our book of the week is our Autumn Recommendation: Girling by Eve Esfandiari-Denney, published by Fitzcarraldo Editions.
"The title of this generous and courageous debut Girling refers to a quote by Hailey Bieber... "One hundred percent... The girls are Girling.’’ Bieber’s transformation of a noun into a verb in this way is a catalyst for Esfandiari-Denney’s witty, profoundly original and intertextual exploration of the possibility of “girling” as an act of reclamation, transition, empowerment and as a clear-eyed witness of the stages of a woman’s life – from infant to nana, from wife to widow."
— Victoria Kennefick, PBS Selector, Autumn 2026 Bulletin
In her open-hearted debut collection, Eve Esfandiari-Denney wrestles with the boundaries between living and death, history and the present, and how these are preordained for us in the fabric of our DNA and in our geographical or cultural environments. Grief is portrayed with a tongue in cheek, cosmic register, as the speaker invests in ‘lions’ mane’, attempts to feel ‘super-radiant’, and moves into ‘moon pose’, while we watch electronic deep-sea claws on YouTube, and google what to do if your mum died last night.
Victoria Kennefick writes: "This is a collection of poems that squeeze the universe into a ball and tap it through every garden of the current moment – the personal and the communal – in joy and in tragedy. It celebrates “girling forth” defiantly in the face of a broken world, and in acceptance of it, making us believe and hope that life is “gloriously close.”
Order Girling here, with 25% off for PBS members.