American author and Harvard-educated gender affairs expert Deborah Swiss will present her book The Tin Ticket: The Heroic Journey of Australia’s Convict Women in the bookstore Mál og Menning on Laugavegur 18 in Reykjavík on January 13 at 5 pm.
Her book is a tale of women as survivors, ordinary women living extraordinary lives as they faced down abuse and injustice, relying on their resiliency and strength, alongside friendships with one another.
In the 19th century, 25,000 women were transported to Australia to serve as “tamers and breeders” following their arrest for petty theft, for pilfering food and clothing was the only means to survive, other than prostitution.
In this sisterhood, women triumphed over tragedy and would settle for nothing less than equality once freed. The women who wore the tin ticket will make you proud to be a woman, a press release stated.
After Swiss’s talk, her partner, Boston singer/songwriter Digney Fignus, will perform “All for Love”, a song he wrote to honor the women in the book.
