# The Women

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![The Women](https://quivercdn.com/covers/penguin/hilton-als/the-women_978-18-3731-179-8-b0dca6ad.jpg?v=2026-09-24%2004%3A27%3A31)

- Authors: [Hilton Als](https://www.bookquiver.com/hilton-als)
- Language: en_GB
- Published: 2026-02-26

## Description

What are the forces that shape us? In The Women , Hilton Als explores—with breath taking originality—the role of sexual and racial identity in marginalized lives. With a blend of fact and fiction, Als brings to vivid life a number of extraordinary characters, including: his mother, a singular woman whose West Indian heritage and determination inspired her son to write; Malcolm X's mother, whose mixed-race background and eventual descent into madness contributed to her son's burgeoning misogyny and fear; brilliant, Harvard-educated Dorothy Dean, who deeply empathized with white gay men; and Owen Dodson, teacher and poet, who played an important role in the author's development as a gay man, and thinker. Combining memoir, cultural history, social theory and storytelling, The Women is a profoundly innovative work which has inspired a generation of writers. Here, Als submits both racial and sexual stereotypes to scrutiny, showing ‘no mercy but every tenderness’. The results are exhilarating. The Women is that rarest of books: a memorable work of self-investigation that creates a form of all its own.

## Editions

### The Women

- Publisher: Penguin
- ISBN: 978-01-4199-974-6
- Pages: 144
- Published: 2026-02-26
- Language: en_GB

### The Women

- Publisher: Penguin
- Medium: ebook
- ISBN: 978-01-4199-975-3
- Published: 2026-02-26
- Language: en_GB

### The Women

- Publisher: Penguin
- Medium: audio
- Length: 4 h 34 min
- Narrated by: Mirron Willis
- ISBN: 978-18-3731-179-8
- Published: 2026-02-26
- Language: en_GB