""Read this. Right now."" โBrandon Taylor
""Molly Dektar can write like hell. [The Absolutes] is simply ravishing."" โMelissa Febos
For fans of Emma Cline and Garth Greenwell, an arresting, seductive novel about one womanโs headlong dive into a reckless affair that leaves her teetering on the edge of sanity.
โIn truth, the idea of evil didnโt worry me at all. There were all these checks on it, of romance and restraint. In such a context, evil was intriguing.โ
When Nora, a withdrawn American teenager, is sent to live with relatives in Turin, she meets Nicola, the enigmatic son of the most powerful aristocratic family in Italy.
Years later, the two reconnect in New York and begin a heated affair. Propelled by disorienting desire, Nora quickly becomes entangled in Nicolaโs insular, menacing world of old-world luxury and family secrets. When she suspects sheโs being used in a secret plot to overthrow his corrupt father, Nora willfully turns submissive to Nicola, pushing against the boundaries of her own moral limits until she finds herself spiraling on a path of self-destruction.
The Absolutesย is searing, subversive examination of manipulation, obsession, and sexual desire. With unsparing intrigue and ferocity, Dektar proves herself to be one of the most ambitious writers working today.
Molly Dektar is also the author of The Ash Family. A graduate of Brooklyn Collegeโs MFA program, she is the recipient of the Dakin Fellowship from the Sewanee Writersโ Conference. Her fiction has been published in The Yale Review, n+1, Fence, Harvard Review, and The Sewanee Review. She lives in Queens.