Joanna Miller's perceptive debut novel, The Eights, imagines the friendship between four women, among the first to matriculate to Oxford University. Through the stories of Beatrice, Dora, Otto, and Marianne, who live on the same corridor (number eight, of course) at St. Hugh's College, Miller examines gender dynamics, power and privilege, and female friendship against the backdrop of 1920s Oxford.
Beatrice, the too-tall daughter of a prominent suffragist, has spent her life trying to live up to her mother's expectations. Dora is reeling from the deaths of her brother and her fiancé in World War I, while Marianne, the dutiful daughter of a widowed rector, is hiding a surprising secret. And Otto, the group's glamorous ringleader, carries deep inner wounds and equally deep compassion for the few people she fiercely loves.
As the women adjust to the vagaries of life at Oxford, they learn to rely on one another not only for late-night music and ginger biscuits in Otto's room but also for help with assignments, advice on romantic troubles, occasional rule-breaking, and care when they're sick in body or spirit. Though all four have come to Oxford with a ferocious drive to prove themselves, they gradually learn to relax in one another's presence and come to see one another as true comrades-in-arms.
"The Eights" bear the burden of making history, but they find succor, support, and unexpected joy in one another's presence. Anglophiles and history lovers will relish the world Miller has brought to life, but the heart of the narrative is the intense, complex bond between four vibrant, determined women. --Katie Noah Gibson, blogger at Cakes, Tea and Dreams