Vladimir

The unnamed main character in this slow-burn debut is a nearly 60-year-old college professor. Her husband, also a professor at the same small college, has been accused of raping many of his students, and he may be terminated for it. Both professors’ lives come under scrutiny with their peers and students, colliding with issues such as the MeToo movement and violence against women by men in power. The main character and her husband have always had an open relationship, and she brushes off criticism of his affairs and the claims that his relationships with younger students were not consensual. But when Vladimir, a new young professor, unintentionally awakens desires and sensations the narrator thought she no longer could feel, the narrator seeks a way to capture him and to consume his talent, youth, and sexuality. Rebecca Lowman perfectly embodies the narrator’s soft, contemplative, wise, superior, and clueless voice.