“If your image of the foreign correspondent of the 1930s and ’40s is a man with a fedora and a cigar, think again. And if your image of the New Journalism is something first created by Tom Wolfe and his imitators decades later, think again there too. Julia Cooke gives us a lively introduction to three remarkable women—Rebecca West, Emily Hahn, and Martha Gellhorn—who each played an underappreciated role in reinventing nonfiction storytelling.” —Adam Hochschild, author of American Midnight

“In a rollicking tale of three intrepid female correspondents, Julia Cooke takes readers on a thrilling journey—from clandestine meetings with Chinese rebels in the red-light district of prewar Shanghai to the scrappy Madrid hotel where journalists stockpiled hams and sheltered from bombings, and beyond. We see what it took for these brave women who covered conflicts around the world to fend off societal pressures and willfully, sometimes recklessly, always resourcefully, forge their own way.” —Julie Satow, author of When Women Ran Fifth Avenue

“Starry and Restless begins with a gun hidden beneath a rumpled dress and takes off from there—across continents, through wars, and into uncharted territory. This richly narrated triple-threat biography reads like historical fiction and reclaims three brave and restless women who might otherwise have been lost to history. It is alive with urgency, and so vivid it nearly breathes—you can’t help but think of its relevance during these troubling times.” —Susannah Cahalan, author of The Acid Queen

“In Starry and Restless, Julia Cooke brings back to life a handful of young dreamers—journalists, writers, storytellers—who defied expectations. As she documents the challenges these women faced, she reveals them for who they really were: heroines, fighting to be heard.” —Keith O’Brien, author of Fly Girls

“The ur-trick of patriarchy has two parts. The first is to erase the women who went before so subsequent generations, in this case of women writers, feel they have no foremothers. The second is for the men who come after to claim the ideas, style, and innovations of these women as their own (see the ‘invention’ of ‘narrative nonfiction’ journalism in the 1970s by Norman Mailer, et al.). This is patriarchy’s constitutive trick of intellectual and actual labour theft, embedded in the writing of history and in the story of those who wrote it. Julia Cooke’s stunning book reclaims a heritage for narrative nonfiction, war, and travel writing, which influenced those who, even while wiping it out, would claim to have invented it. This is a beautifully written account of the wild lives and work of Rebecca West, Martha Gellhorn, and Emily Hahn, weaving their achievements into their context in a way that makes them seem all the more extraordinary. Starry and Restless is an exciting, fascinating, and indispensable contribution to the story of twentieth-century writing.” —Anna Funder, author of Wifedom: Mrs. Orwell’s Invisible Life

“Starry and Restless is a gripping saga—part history, part travelogue—of three formidable writers who lived through, covered, and shaped our understanding of some of the twentieth century’s most momentous events. Spanning New York to Hong Kong, Kinshasa to Split, London to Chongqing, professional triumphs to domestic agonies, Cooke’s account of how these women built their lives off words on the page is an adventure unto itself. I didn’t want to leave the company of the trailblazing journalists Cooke so expertly and beautifully brings to life.” —Bianca Bosker, author of Get the Picture