Other women

the long version

From the highly acclaimed author of Fresh Girls and Other Stories comes a darkly universal first novel that is already winning comparisons to Marguerite Duras's classic, The Lover. Fiona, an accomplished young artist reeling from lack of love and susceptible to obsession, falls hopelessly in love with Raymond, an older married man who never fails to remind her that he will not leave his wife. "This is not the first time," he says. "You shouldn't let me do this to you.". Written in stark, passionate prose tinged with pain, Other Women unfolds in a floating, surreal world of hotel rooms, restaurants, and cabs - as slowly the wife becomes the other woman the mistress idealizes. The exquisite pain of someone who longs to be chosen, who craves loyalty and domesticity, is juxtaposed with the cool cruelty of her lover.