First published 2020
Vanessa Wye is fifteen when she enters the office of Jacob Strane, her literature professor at an elite New England boarding school. The brilliant student finds herself drawn to the charismatic forty-two-year-old teacher, and what begins as intellectual mentorship transforms into something far more complex. Their relationship spans years, shaping Vanessa's understanding of love and desire. Seventeen years later, another former student accuses Strane of sexual abuse and reaches out to Vanessa. The contact forces Vanessa to revisit memories she has never questioned. She must confront whether her formative relationship was actually love or something darker. As doubt creeps in, Vanessa grapples with a devastating possibility: that the man who claimed to love her eternally may have manipulated and harmed her. The story moves between past and present, contrasting teenage Vanessa's excitement about her awakening sexuality with her adult self's growing awareness of trauma.
Genres: fiction, literary-fiction, abuse, contemporary, adult-fiction, academia
Vibes: dark, emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: unreliable-narrator
Setting: New England
Period: 21st Century
448 pages · Paperback · Éditions Les Escales
Content warnings: abuse, sexual-assault