The story was fascinating and well-paced; the writing was incredible. The urgency at the intersection between desire and guilt; the struggle between the demands of motherhood and the lure of scholarship; the compulsion to follow societal (and behaviorist) demands warring with the truer instincts of motherhood, all beautifully rendered. Reading this book was like walking in a haze. It is like a combination between “Mad Men” and The Blind Assassin.