Vladimir

An NPR Washington Post Time People Vulture Guardian Vox Kirkus Reviews Newsweek LitHub and New York Public Library Best Book of the Year * “Delightful…cathartic devious and terrifically entertaining.” —The New York Times * “Timely whip-smart and darkly funny.” —People (Book of the Week) * One of Shondaland’s 13 Best College-Set Novels of All Time A provocative razor-sharp and timely debut novel about a beloved English professor facing a slew of accusations against her professor husband by former students—a situation that becomes more complicated when she herself develops an obsession of her own.... “When I was a child I loved old men and I could tell that they also loved me.” And so we are introduced to our narrator who’s “a work of art in herself” (The Washington Post): a popular English professor whose charismatic husband at the same small liberal arts college is under investigation for his inappropriate relationships with his former students. The couple have long had a mutual understanding when it comes to their extra-marital pursuits but with these new allegations life has become far less comfortable for them both. And when our narrator becomes increasingly infatuated with Vladimir—a celebrated married young novelist who’s just arrived on campus—their tinder box world comes dangerously close to exploding. “Timely whip-smart and darkly funny” (People) Vladimir takes us into charged territory where the boundaries of morality bump up against the impulses of the human heart. This edgy uncommonly assured debut perfectly captures the personal and political minefield of our current moment exposing the nuances and the grey area between power and desire.