'Rita is an escort, one of the best in Australia. It all began on a whim at 18, after she rang the number on a sign looking for nude models. Estranged from her parents and always the outsider, she quickly learns the sex industry is comprised of many other people just like her. Rita becomes immersed in this world—the drugs, the late nights, the glamour, being an outcast, the attention and validation from men and, like a sponge, she soaks it all up. Mostly she thrives on how taboo her life has become. Her only stable relationships are with her two older siblings and when they both suicide, within eight months of each other, her life spirals.
'In this achingly honest memoir, Rita learns that death and trauma do not always bring grand transformative experiences. Sometimes in order to go forward, we have to write our own stories and choose to keep living. With its unflinching, compelling and darkly funny narrative, Come announces a fearless new talent in Australian writing.'
Source: Publisher's blurb.
'We’ve come a long way in the representation of sex work in Australian literature. In 2016 Melbourne Writers Festival (MWF) programmed a panel comprising anti-sex-work campaigners to discuss the ‘devastating impact of prostitution’ without any actual sex workers present. And I remember—as a closeted sex worker wanting to be a writer at the time—watching the sex-worker community call this out, while for the most part people in literary circles did not seem to notice or care.' (Introduction)
'We’ve come a long way in the representation of sex work in Australian literature. In 2016 Melbourne Writers Festival (MWF) programmed a panel comprising anti-sex-work campaigners to discuss the ‘devastating impact of prostitution’ without any actual sex workers present. And I remember—as a closeted sex worker wanting to be a writer at the time—watching the sex-worker community call this out, while for the most part people in literary circles did not seem to notice or care.' (Introduction)
