We Do What We Do in the Dark

Still grieving her mother, college freshman Mallory becomes fascinated by an older woman she sees at the university gym. The woman is married, accomplished and employed by the school, inhabiting a world that seems far removed from Mallory’s uncertainty. Their clandestine affair draws Mallory further away from other relationships and deepens a solitude she already knows well. Desire offers intensity without necessarily offering security, and admiration makes the relationship’s imbalance difficult to untangle. Years later, Mallory must reckon with the place this experience still occupies in her life. The novel traces the connections between bereavement, secrecy and intimacy, asking how an early relationship can continue to shape a person long after it ends.