Backcast by Ann McMan

• Publisher: Bywater Books
• Available in: eBook, Paperback, Audible
• ISBN: 978-1-61294-064-9
• Available: November 16, 2015

Backcast is set at a resort hotel on the shores of Lake Champlain in Vermont.  Sculptor and author, Barb Davis, is awarded an NEA grant to create an installation of feminist sculptures inspired by and paired with essays written by twelve women she chose to include on a two-week writing and sculpting retreat at the resort.

During the retreat, the women also get involved in a Pro/Am bass fishing tournament where they meet and converse with a two-hundred-year-old large mouth bass named Phoebe.

Ann McMan has written a work of art in Backcast which should be read and studied in high schools and colleges around the world.  It is that good and that important. The themes and issues she presents through the individual essays are poignant and timelessly relevant for women of all ages and ethnicities. And the quiet and anonymous manner in which Ann chose to reveal the struggles of these women was absolute genius.

I cannot possibly adequately convey how moved and inspired I was by this book.  It was sad, funny, happy, frustrating, intriguing, uplifting, terrifying, and so much more.  Recently I've had the pleasure of connecting with new women in my life.  In just a short time I've come to realize that each and every one of us has a deeply moving story to tell.  We have each suffered.  We have each known pain.  We've also each known love, happiness, and contentment.  I'm discovering that being a woman is so different from being a man.  That may sound overly simplistic.  But as you read Backcast, the profound difference is readily apparent.

Ann McMan, I give you five stars for Backcast.  She spent a long time in the womb, but this baby was well worth the wait.