{"product_id":"glass-eel","title":"Glass Eel","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eExploring the power of female friendships in times of despair\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e In the near-future United States, abortion is criminalized. Women are not only stripped of bodily autonomy but are also arrested and put through various punishments, including a Christian fundamentalist rehabilitation program and manual labor. Thrown together in this harrowing corrections process, two women, E and M, form a deep bond. Rippling through time and space, \u003ci\u003eGlass Eel\u003c\/i\u003e illuminates an imminent nightmare while exploring the unbreakable force of female friendship in times of despair. \u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e Before serving their sentences, E is a romantic who is prone to vivid, maladaptive daydreaming, and M is an empiricist studying to become a marine biologist. Isolated by her devout mother, E turns inward, developing a passion for poetry and myth. At the exact wrong time, she becomes involved with a married man. When E becomes pregnant, he gaslights her, denying their entire relationship. M, while working as a part-time performer at an underwater mermaid theater, carries the heavy responsibility of being the sole provider for her sick mother. One night, she reluctantly accompanies her roommate to a party where she's raped. Both E and M make the difficult decision to terminate their pregnancies and are eventually arrested for it. \u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e Brought together to serve their sentences, E and M painstakingly labor underground to unclog the Chicago sewers at night. By day, they wander the bleak shore of a radioactive industrial lake, home to mysterious unearthly creatures. E and M unravel psychologically, desperate to cope with their impossible new reality as they grasp at their last real connection—their friendship—to make it through this dystopian time. \u003ci\u003eGlass Eel\u003c\/i\u003e explores the bond between E and M to show how people hold each other together when everything feels like it is falling apart.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57504963002741,"sku":"9781625349903","price":18.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"url":"https:\/\/backstory.london\/products\/glass-eel","provider":"Backstory","version":"1.0","type":"link"}