Starry and Restless

By: Julia Cooke

Published by Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 2026-02-24

The page-turning story of three women reporters and the way they changed the world, work, and journalism. Emily “Mickey” Hahn, Rebecca West, Martha Gellhorn. The lively salons of Shanghai, Yugoslavia on the brink of World War II, the shot-marked streets of the Spanish Civil War, Hong Kong under Japanese occupation, Germany and Italy at war, post-Blitz London, McCarthy-era Mexico, Congo, the American South, Cuba, and beyond. These women didn’t just bear witness to the great changes of the twentieth century, they didn’t just create the stories that gave the backstory to wars and roused their readers to support, they transformed the world they were writing about even as they transformed the way it was written about and read. Hahn, West, and Gellhorn each traversed the globe in search of great stories they would then dispatch to outlets like The New Yorker, The Times (London), The New York Times, The New Republic, The Atlantic Monthly, Collier’s, and Vogue. They often traveled alone, sometimes teaming up with other women reporters, sometimes with their husbands in tow. They sneaked onto the front lines when they were forbidden, talked to everyday civilians to get color and detail for their stories. They wrote novels to pay the bills(!) and articles to explain the world to itself. They became mothers and friends, took joy in each other’s successes. They changed the world and journalism. Julia Cooke's Restless Women is the story of three women whose curiosity, grit, and ambition hugely expanded the possibilities for women and meaningful work.