Kate Walbert’s new novel chronicles the lives of women who struggle to find their own voice

Novelist writes about the journey of womanhood

“A Short History of Women” (Scribner, 237 pages, $24), Kate Walbert: This book is for any woman who has ever struggled to find her own voice; to make sense of being a mother, wife, daughter and lover. But it is not only for women.

The novel portrays the female experience through five generations of women.

Walbert begins her novel in England in 1914 as Dorothy Trevor Townsend, a suffragette, is starving herself in the name of her cause. The story begins through the eyes of Evelyn Charlotte Townsend, Dorothy’s daughter.

“Mum starved herself for suffrage, Grandmother claiming it was just like Mum to take a cause too far. Mum said she had no choice.”

Evie, a girl of superior intellect, later immigrates to America and starts a science career. She never communicates with her brother Thomas, a gifted musician, who was sent to the U.S. earlier. His daughter, also named Dorothy, marries, has children, loses a son and starts anti-war protests, which go nowhere. She leaves her husband and blogs. Her daughter, Liz, gets drunk during a play date in New York, in 2007. Her sister Caroline, who lives in Bedford, N.Y., discovers her mother’s blog.

“I have been thinking of my life, trying to put together the pieces of it. Initially, I did what I was told to do, or rather, what I believed was required of me. I had a distant father who would be recognizable to many of you. He was terribly bright and refused to speak much more than the weather and what we were eating for dinner.”

This is a character-driven work and by the end of the novel the characters take on a life of their own. But until then, sorting through the various eras and women gets confusing at times. The chapters jump from the end of the 19th century to the 21st century, and some of the women have the same first name or last name.

Walbert’s writing is rich. It reflects each period with such vividness, the reader is transported back. It never feels cliche or unreal. It brings the reader into the character’s world and mindset.

An example is when Dorothy, the niece of the original suffragette, takes a dancing class with her husband.

“But as she reached for Charles’ hand, the note she still held — she had forgotten! — slipped like a secret message to the polished ballroom floor. ‘I am a hollow bone.’”

The plight of these women seems real because parts of their lives are mirrored in all of ours. There is no handbook or roadmap for life. Once we have children, our lives are no longer our own, but we are still human. We make mistakes. Walbert shows us how our choices affect the people we love the most.

When Evie enrolls in college, she fantasizes she is talking with her dead mother Dorothy. She is angry that her mother died, crumbling the foundation of her life.

“‘Forgive me,’ she says, reaching.”

Walbert is also the author of “Where She Went: Stories,” ”The Gardens of Kyoto” and “Our Kind.”