Woman on the Edge of Time

Cover of one of the The Women's Press editions.

Woman on the Edge of Time (sometimes abbreviated WOTEOT) is a 1976 feminist SF novel by Marge Piercy.

The basic premise is that of a Latina woman in roughly present time, caught in a nexus of time: a turning point between a nearly utopian, communitarian, feminist, democratic, non-racist, and environmentally sustainable community; and its opposite, an authoritarian, militaristic, technological and deeply exploitative society in which women are subordinate to men and both sexes are exploited within a hierarchy.

This work is wonderfully well-written, and Piercy skillfully interweaves numerous themes: medical paternalism (towards women and people of color in particular), and technology over-leaping human ethics. Woman on the Edge of Time is an important, inspirational, and thought-provoking work of feminist SF, well-written and absorbing.

Original blurb

Connie Ramos is 37, Mexican-American; a loving mother now labelled a child abuser; an heroically sane woman, now declared insane. Drugged, a helpless inmate of a mental hospital, she is offered only one way back to 'normality' -- participation in a mind-control experiment using electronic implantations in the brain. But Connie is also a 'catcher', a natural telepath with the ability to enter a Utopian future of ecological and social harmony. As the doctors close in Connie realises she has a fight on her hands -- a fight in which a future world and her own life are at stake.

Intertextuality

Thoughts on childbirth drawn from Shulamith Firestone's The Dialectic of Sex

Editions

Print

• May 1976, New York: Alfred A. Knopf, ISBN 0-394-49986-7. (hardcover) cover by R.D. Scudellari
• Jun 1976, New York: Fawcett Crest, ISBN 0-449-23208-5. (paperback) cover by Jerome Podwil
• May 1979, London: The Women's Press, ISBN 0-7043-3837-8. (paperback) cover by Jane Downer
• Jun 1983, New York: Fawcett, ISBN 0-499-21082-4. (paperback)
• Aug 1983, New York: Fawcett, ISBN 0-449-20485-5. (paperback)
• Jan 1984, London: The Women's Press, ISBN 0-7043-3837-8. (paperback)
• Nov 1985, New York: Fawcett, ISBN 0-499-21082-0. (paperback) cover by R.B. Kitaj
• May 1987, London: The Women's Press, ISBN 0-7043-3837-8. (paperback) cover by Phyllis Mahon
• Feb 1991, New York: Fawcett, ISBN 0-449-21082-0. (paperback) cover by R.B. Kitaj
• Jul 1997, New York: Ballantine Books, ISBN 0-449-00094-X. (trade paperback)
• Jun 2000, London: The Women's Press, ISBN 0-7043-4656-7. (trade paperback)

Translations

• 1981, Oslo, Norway: Pax Forlag, ISBN 978-825301159-2. (hardcover) transl. by Tone Formo as Kvinne ved tidens rand
• 1982, Stockholm, Sweden: Forum, ISBN 91-37-07703-1. (hardcover) transl. by Hilja-Katarina Wallin as Kvinna vid tidens rand
• 1983, Copenhagen, Denmark: Glydendal, ISBN 8700587346. (paperback) transl. by Arne Herløv Petersen as Kvinde ved tidens rand
• 1986, München, Germany: Wilhelm Heyne Verlag, ISBN 3-453-31296-1. (paperback) transl. by Norbert Werner & Hertha Zidek as Die Frau am Abgrund der Zeit
• 1986, Amsterdam, Netherlands: Uitgeverij Bert Bakker, ISBN 90-351-0241-X. (trade paperback) transl. by Helen Knopper as Vrouw op het Scherp van de Tijd
• 1990, Milan, Italy: Elèuthera, ISBN 8-8858-6114-8. transl. by Andrea Buzzi as Sul filo del tempo
• 1996, Hamburg/Berlin, Germany: Argument-Verlag, ISBN 3-88619-915-0. (paperback) transl. by Karsta Frank as Die Frau am Abgrund der Zeit
• 1997, Tokyo, Japan: Gakugei Shorin, ISBN 4-8751-7037-8. transl. by Kazuko Kondō as 時を飛翔する女 / Toki o hishōsuru onna
• 2010, Hamburg/Berlin, Germany: Argument-Verlag, ISBN 9783886194865. (hardcover) transl. by Heidi Zerning as Die Frau am Abgrund der Zeit

There was also a version published in Israel by the Second Sex Press

Audio

• 1976, Owensboro, KY: Owensboro Volunteer Recording Unit (cassettes)
• 1985, Victoria Park, WA: Association for the Blind of W.A, read by Frances Dharmalingan (cassettes)
• 1986, Copenhagen, Denmark: Statens Bibliotek og Trykkeri for Blinde, read by Chili Turèll (cassettes)
• 1992, Greenfield MA : Green Island Productions, read by Cynthia Lopez (cassettes)
• 1994, Odense, Denmark: Det Danske Lydbogsforlag, read by Camilla Qvistgaard (cassettes)
• 2006, Princeton, NJ: Recording for the Blind & Dyslexic (CD-ROM)

Video

• 1986, Columbia, MO: American Audio Prose Library, Marge Piercy reads "Woman on the edge of time", "Braided lives" (excerpts)

E-book

• 1997, New York: Ballantine Books
• 2002, New York: Fawcett Crest. Digital version of first Ballantine Books edition published in 1983.
• 2010, New York: Fawcett, (Kindle)

External links

• Book discussion group on feministSF mailing list (June 2002). BDG Woman on the Edge of Time. bdg.feministsf.net. FeministSF Book Discussion Group. Retrieved on 15 April 2011.