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Fritz Agency
Christian Dittus
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English

WE DO WHAT WE DO IN THE DARK

Michelle Hart

A novel about a young woman's life-altering affair with a much older, married woman.

Mallory is a freshman in college, reeling from her mother's recent death, when she encounters the woman. She sees her for the first time at the university's gym, immediately entranced. Soon, they meet, drawn by an electric tension and shared past wounds; before long, they begin sleeping together in secret. Self-possessed, successful, brilliant, and aloof—the woman is everything Mallory wants and wants to be. Desiring not only the woman but also the idea of who she is when they're together, Mallory retreats from the rest of the world, solidifying a sense of aloneness that has both haunted and soothed her since childhood and will continue to do so for years even after the affair ends. As an adult, Mallory must decide whether to stay safely in isolation or step fully into the world, to confront what the woman meant to her and how their relationship shaped her, for better or worse.

Mallory's life is transformed by loss and by love and by discovering who she is while enduring both. In this enthralling debut novel, the complexities of influence, obsession, and admiration reveal how desire and its consequences can alter the trajectory of someone's life.

Michelle Hart is the Assistant Books Editor at O, the Oprah Magazine. Her fiction has appeared in Joyland and Electric Literature, and she has written nonfiction for Catapult, Nylon, the Rumpus, and The New Yorker online. She received her M.F.A. in Fiction from Rutgers University-Newark.
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Book

Published 2022-05-01 by Riverhead

Comments

UK: Tinder Press;

“Michelle Hart's first novel is a haunting study of solitude and connection, moving and memorable.” – Meg Wolitzer “Seductive and lyrical with poetic detail, this is an unforgettable account of a forbidden romance made extraordinary by Hart's precision and lyrical touch. A compulsive read that satisfies and haunts.” – Nicole Dennis-Benn, author Patsy and Here Comes the Sun "It is a rare debut that exhibits the authority of voice and vision that Michelle Hart gives us in We Do What We Do In The Dark." – Melissa Febos, author of Girlhood

“Hart has written a realistic world where women do all the talking, to each other, and rarely about the men in their lives.... Hart's novel does something exceptional that few pieces of fiction have done successfully: She presents the older married professor as not only a complicated figure worthy of desire and suspicion, but makes her a woman too.... We Do What We Do in the Dark has flashes of Sally Rooney's Conversations With Friends, or Halle Butler's The New Me. Sometimes it's erotic, sometimes it's devastating. Maybe this is what the new erotic thriller has morphed into in literature.... [T]he writing always crackles, written by someone who clearly knows what it's like to desire another woman in ways you just barely understand." —New York Times Book Review “Hart debuts with a transfixing queer coming-of-age novel about a woman's affair with a much older professor .. Mallory's intense interiority and self-consciousness will remind readers of Sally Rooney's work, and Hart's prose is delicate and piercing. This is auspicious and breathtaking.” —Publishers Weekly (starred review) “Michelle Hart's coming-of-age novel skillfully depicts forbidden romance and the shame it can foster.” —TIME Magazine “An electric debut.” —Marie Claire "Hart's novel is such a triumph" —Autostraddle

"In Michelle Hart's debut novel, she tackles vulnerability, attachment, and the purpose relationships serve in our increasingly isolated lives.” —Buzzfeed “A novel about a young woman's life-altering affair with a much older, married woman. An enthralling debut novel, the complexities of influence, obsession, and admiration reveal how desire and its consequences can alter the trajectory of someone's life." —Biblio Lifestyle “Sensual . . . the story of yearning between young Mallory and a married college professor. Theirs is a transactional desire on the surface, but Hart delves into the motivations of both Mallory and the professor, referred to in the text only as The Woman, to reveal important truths about what our closest relationships say about us, and what they help us conceal.” —Oprah Daily “Memorable . . . strong writing and unique characterizations. Hart understands how to propel a novel forward and does so with beautiful language guiding the reader." —Debutiful

“A gorgeous storyteller, Hart is gifted with a poet's precision, blending image and idea. Sensual and wise, this novel channels the melancholic exhilaration of dangerous love.” – Tayari Jones, author of An American Marriage “A beautiful book so filled with sharp longing and perfectly phrased vulnerability that I read it in a reverent hush.” – Torrey Peters, author of Detransition, Baby “Reading this brilliant book is like holding a fierce yet trembling bird in your cupped hand, every page causes a tremble in your heart. You can't put it down.” – Akhil Sharma, author of Family Life