VIRGIN AND OTHER STORIES

One of The Irish Times Best debuts of 2017 One of New York Magazine''s 45 New Books to Read This FallOne of The Millions'' Most Anticipated for the second half of 2016One of The Huffington Post''s 20 New Books You''ll Need For Your Shelf in Fall 2016One of The Boston Globe''s most anticipated for Fall 2016One of Bookriot''s 16 Books to Read This FallOne of Harper''s Bazaar''s 16 Books You Need to Read in NovemberSet in the American South at the crossroads of a world that is both secular and devoutly Christian April Ayers Lawson’s stories mine the inner lives of young women and men navigating sexual emotional and spiritual awakenings. In the title story Jake grapples with the growing chasm between him and his wife Sheila who was a virgin when they wed. In “Three Friends in a Hammock” the tension and attraction is palpable between three sexy insecure young women as they tug and toe the rope of their shared sack. “The Way You Must Play Always” invites us into the mind of Gretchen young-looking even for thirteen as she attends her weekly piano lesson anxiously anticipating her illicit meeting with Wesley her instructor’s adult brother who is recovering from a brain tumor. Conner the cynical sixteen-year-old narrator of “The Negative Effects of Homeschooling” escorts his mink-wearing mother to the funeral of her best friend Charlene a woman who was once a man. And in “Vulnerability” we accompany a young married painter to New York City lured there by an art dealer and one of his artists. Both are self-involved and have questionable intentions but nevertheless she is enticed.Nodding to the Southern Gothic but channeling an energy all its own Virgin and Other Stories is a mesmerizing debut from an uncannily gifted young writer. With self-assurance and sensuality April Ayers Lawson unravels the intertwining imperatives of intimacy―sex and love violation and trust spirituality and desire―eyeing unblinkingly what happens when we succumb to temptation.