When two married professors tiptoe toward infidelity, their transgressions are brought to light in a graduate student's searing thesis project. 'This tour de force is a campus novel, a love story, a coming-of-age narrative, a satire, a performance piece, an M.F.A. expos , a trove of literary references and a primer on writing.' --The New York Times Book Review​ Simone is the star of Edwards University's creative writing department: renowned Woolf scholar, grief memoirist, and campus sex icon. Her less glamorous and ostensibly devoted husband, Ethan, is a forgotten novelist and lecturer in the same department. According to Simone and Ethan, and everyone on campus, their marriage is perfect. That is, until Ethan sleeps with the department administrative assistant, Abigail, and the couple's faith in their flawless relationship is rattled. Simone, meanwhile, has secrets of her own. While Ethan's away for the summer, she grows inordinately close with her advisee, graduate student Roberta