Fallen

'Call me Eve. It's the name I call myself when I think back to that time when I was a young wife - so very young, so very hungry. I picked the fruit and ate and drank until I was drunk with freedom and covered in juice and guilt.'

In this frank, compelling and beautifully written memoir, Rochelle Siemienowicz provides an intimate portrait of the last days of an open marriage.

Raised as devout Seventh-day Adventists, who believe that the end of the world is near and that premarital sex is a terrible sin, Eve and her husband marry young. Rebelling against their upbringing, and in an attempt to overcome problems in their relationship, they enter an agreement that has its own strict rules. But when Eve holidays alone in her hometown of Perth during a hot West Australian summer, she finds her body and heart floating free. Fallen is a true tale of sex, love, religion and getting married too young - and about what it feels like when you can't keep the promises you once sincerely made.

Read Caroline Baum's Review

It's hard to believe that in 1992 a mother making her daughter's bridal dress would still feel disappointed that her daughter was not marrying as a virgin. But so begins Rochelle Siemienowicz's candid confession of a match made too young and which soon runs aground. Within a year, aged twenty two, Rochelle's love life is in ruins: her husband Isaac no longer desires her. Together they negotiate an open marriage and make their first forays into threesomes and other sexual partnerships with neighbours, friends and colleagues. But when she meets her teenage boyfriend Marcus again, the electricity soon sparks between them.

It does not get more candid than this when it comes to sexual coming of age memoirs.

About the Author

Rochelle Siemienowicz is a writer, film critic and former editor at the AFI / AACTA. She has a PhD in Australian cinema and was the long-time film editor for The Big Issue. She currently reports for Screen Hub, reviews for SBS Film and is Film Columnist for Kill Your Darlings. She very occasionally blogs at It’s Better in the Dark, and is currently working on her first novel, which has nothing at all to do with movies.