Cosmopolis Urban Stories by Women Author:Ines Rieder From Publishers Weekly — Each of the 22 stories in this strong collection is set in a different city, offering stunning variety in their depiction of urban manners and mores from a female perspective. In Rosalind Warren's "Auto Repair," the major events in a Detroit teenager's life--from her mother's death to love's first heartbreak--take place i... more »nside an automobile: "I love this car," she thinks paradoxically. "Nothing can get me in here." Miriam Tlali's "Fud-u-u-a!" demonstrates how for Johannesburg blacks even the daily train ride to work becomes a degrading reminder of the double burden of suffering borne by black women. In Rosanna Fiocchetto's pointed tale, "The Day Rome Went Crazy," a great rainbow appears, setting off international folly: Red Square turns green, the White House turns red, and only lesbians welcome the undoing of order. In "Barcelona Love," Maria-Antonia Oliver describes opulence and garbage pickers, crowding and pollution, yet remains constant to the city she adores. Rieder's ( AIDS: The Women ) own "After Life in Vienna" is a women's washroom attendant's monologue that clings to hope even when it looks like the city's vitality has been relegated to graves and museums.« less