Acts Of Service: A Novel

If sex is a truth-teller, Eve - a young, queer woman in Brooklyn - is looking for answers. On an evening when she is feeling particularly impulsive, she posts some nude photos of herself online. This is how Eve meets Olivia, & through Olivia, the charismatic Nathan - & soon the three begin a relationship that disturbs Eve as much as it delights her. As each act of the affair unfolds, Eve is left to ask: to whom is she responsible? And to what extent do our desires determine who we are?

In the way that only great fiction can, Acts of Service takes between its teeth the contradictions written all over our ideas of sex & sexuality. As incisive as it is exhilarating, this novel asks us to face our ideas about desire & power: what sex means to us, the forces that shape it, & how we find - or lose - ourselves in intimacy. At once juicy & intellectually challenging, sacred & profane, it might be the most thought-provoking book you read all year.

“Radical, daring, & bracing . . . for me, it made the human creature feel like something new.” — Sheila Heti, author of How Should a Person Be? & Pure Colour