Few writers examine intimacy, cruelty, and desire with the clarity of Mary Gaitskill. If she had a tumblr back in the day, she would've been unstoppable.

A set of psychologically precise stories about people moving through the blurred terrain of sex, power, loneliness, and moral compromise. Gaitskill’s characters are often adrift — chasing connection, control, or escape — and the results are rarely neat or consoling.

Her prose is cool, exacting, and unsentimental, allowing uncomfortable truths to surface without explanation or judgment. Across these stories, moments of tenderness sit uneasily beside manipulation, vulnerability beside violence, revealing how fragile and strange human relationships can be.

This collection confirms Gaitskill as one of the most fearless chroniclers of modern intimacy.