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Interviews | July 4, 2009

All posts by Jill Owens Powells.com Interview: Luis Alberto Urrea

Luis Alberto Urrea is a poet, novelist, journalist, and essayist who has been writing about the relationship between the United States and Mexico,... Continue »


  1. $17.49 Sale Hardcover add to wish list

    Into the Beautiful North

    Luis Alberto Urrea

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3 Burnside Literature- A to Z


Playing

by Melanie Abrams

Playing Cover

ISBN13: 9780802170477
ISBN10: 0802170471
Condition: Standard
All Product Details

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Synopses & Reviews

Publisher Comments:

Melanie Abrams’s debut novel is a provocative tale about love, betrayal, and how one young woman’s unconventional sexual reawakening uncovers the most guarded parts of her past.

When Josie, an anthropology grad student, is unexpectedly offered a job as the nanny for six-year-old Tyler, she innocently accepts. Though Josie doesn’t necessarily need the job, there’s something about Tyler’s single mom, Mary--her beauty, her confidence, her resemblance to Josie’s mother--that draws Josie in. While her quick intimacy with Mary soothes Josie’s estrangement from her own parents, it also breeds betrayal when Josie falls for Mary’s crush, Devesh. An Indian surgeon ten years Josie’s senior, Devesh is a strong and enigmatic man who pulls Josie into a dizzying world of sexual domination and submission that speaks to her deeply hidden desires. It is a world of games that fast becomes serious, forcing Josie to confront the darkest moments of her past as she desperately struggles with her family history, her own violent impulses, and her love for Devesh.

Rapturous, illuminating, and emotionally charged, Playing is an unflinching look at the irrevocable consequences of giving in to our most secret passions, and the freedom and imprisonment that comes with true self-knowledge.

Review:

"Abrams's debut novel is a revealing look inside the mind of a woman who enjoys being beaten, shamed and dominated by her lover. While pursuing her studies, 27-year-old anthropology graduate student Josie works as a nanny for a single mother with a special-needs son and a baby girl. While Josie may at first seem like a wholesome young woman, it isn't long before she's sneaking out in the middle of the night to rendezvous with her older Indian doctor lover, Devesh, who recognizes her sadomasochistic desires. With great excitement, she allows herself to be bound and whipped, fulfilling her desire to 'play.' As Josie falls in love with Devesh, their bedroom escapades become increasingly brutal, and she struggles to make sense of her need for sexual violence as she explores her relationship with her mother and confronts her guilt about the death of her infant brother, who died under murky circumstances when she was a little girl. The narrative moves fast, and the stark swirl of sex, violence and near-madness will please readers with a dark bent." Publishers Weekly (Copyright Reed Business Information, Inc.)

Synopsis:

Rapturous, illuminating, and emotionally charged, this work takes an unflinching look at the irrevocable consequences of giving in to one's most secret passions, and the freedom and imprisonment that comes with true self-knowledge.

Product Details

ISBN:
9780802170477
Author:
Abrams, Melanie
Publisher:
Black Cat
Subject:
Literary
Subject:
Nannies
Subject:
Sexual dominance and submission
Subject:
Triangles (Interpersonal relations)
Publication Date:
April 2008
Binding:
Paperback
Language:
English
Pages:
284
Dimensions:
8.29x5.57x.77 in. .76 lbs.

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