The Angry Women’s Choir is the third book by Tasmanian author Meg Bignell which crams a spectrum of life’s experiences into its narrative. Experiences with which innumerable (female) readers will no doubt identify. 

Freycinet Barnes, aka ‘Frey’ (sounds like “fray’), is the ultimate super-Mum whose acceptance of her subservient role is shattered when she collides with the West Moonah Women’s Choir, a motley group of women who have reason to be angry with the world. There is Rosalia, dying too young of cancer, Eleanor who is “dead on the inside,” Irene who has early dementia, Bizzy, a child of rape and Avni, the anxious songwriter. Frey herself has to deal with an adulterous husband, an anorexic teenage daughter and a surly adolescent son. 

Re-inventing themselves as The Angry Women’s Choir, they thumb their noses at everything that has restrained and hurt them. It’s a tale of social activism which questions the patriarchy and subverts the status quo interleaved with issues surrounding the environment, change through social media, and the impact of the COVID pandemic. Singing becomes an outlet for pent-up emotion. Underneath are powerful...