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Description
This novel probes the reckless impulses behind an extramarital affair, from an author who is “an heir to Updike and Cheever” (Robert Wiersema, author of Bedtime Story and Before I Wake)
Ronnie is a hairdresser who has tried to become a better person to please her fiancé — healthier, well behaved, free of her old bad habits like smoking cigarettes, eating red meat, and indulging in the occasional line of cocaine. As the wedding date approaches — and the pressure to get pregnant intensifies — she finds herself with a sense of unsettled yearning. Then, at a party her husband-to-be is catering, she meets Charlie.
An anxiety-ridden, award-winning writer, Charlie feels suffocated by his bread-winning wife and the needs of his autistic child. His torrid affair with Ronnie plays out on office desks and in Toronto hotel rooms. Each is getting something from the other, but as the relationship grows ever riskier, they must decide what it is they truly want, and truly need, and what they’re willing to sacrifice to get it.
Contributor Notes
Stacey May Fowles is a writer and magazine professional. She is the author of the novels Be Good (Tightrope, 2007) and Fear of Fighting (Invisible, 2008), and her essays have been widely anthologized in collections like Yes Means Yes, First Person Queer, and Nobody Passes. She is a regular contributor to the National Post and currently works at The Walrus. She lives in Toronto, Ontario.
Editorial Review
“Raises important questions about ennui, the human need for growth, expectations for security through marriage and the eventual breaking down of those expectations in the name of a more real love.” —National Post
“The question curled up in the novel remains: Was it love that allowed this liberation or was it the act of destroying a life they once deemed valuable? Is the hunger that gnaws at us the desire to be loved, or is it the need to show the world what love makes us capable of doing? Fowles handles these questions with a fleeting lightness, a surprising gentleness, revealing a sorrow that threatens to last longer than passion.” —Globe and Mail
