A tender, sharp and entertaining novel, from one of the most original women writers at work today. The Bride of Catastrophe is a comedy that follows the fortunes of Beatrice Wolfe, a 'feral child' raised in a peculiar, isolated family and loosed onto an unsuspecting world at Sweetriver College. There she falls under the spell of her tutor, an energetic, exuberant, lesbian iconoclast called Philippa Sayres. After graduation, we follow Beatrice's odyssey into Real Life as she tries, valiantly, earnestly, ridiculously to make conventional and meaningful progress. She insists she's a lesbian, though everyone from her parents to her female lovers to the man she unwittingly adores can see she's wrong. But then she's not used to being wrong - she has long since been the grown-up in her troubled family. A latterday Emma who snaps her book smartly shut and thinks with satisfaction "Now I know how love progresses.", Beatrice has a lot to learn, and a lot of growing up to do. Witnessing her journey, in this hugely entertaining and tender comic novel, is a hilarious, poignant delight. 'THE BRIDE OF CATASTROPHE is hilarious even as it veers to the edge of tragic. The novel's sensibility keeps you reading and laughing. Heidi Jon Schmidt's wicked and dark humor makes perfect crazy sense of the unlikeliest elements - from a ping pong ball factory to the intricate personal politics of a lesbian community. The brio and originality of her short stories are alive and well in this wonderful novel.' Katharine Weber