Penelope Rundle

Virga Penelope Rundle

Virga-sheets of rain or ice particles falling from a cloud, but evaporating in mid-air-is a metaphor for the difficulties women still experience in making rain. After decades of feminism, the business world is complicated by gender politics and the shadowy, destructive power of passive-aggression that even the accelerated, women-can-have-it-all nineties cannot undo. The trajectories of a lawyer, judge, court reporter, defendant and prosecutor become entwined in Magnolia Superior Court. These outwardly successful alpha females collide while reinventing their career paths after the lurid death of a managing partner who figured in all their lives. The Internet and media influences are in their infancy but factor into the outcome of sensational deaths culminating in a stormy journey through the judicial system. Virga is a novel about women working in isolation or in opposition to each other who finally collaborate to succeed.