Sara Rauch is in a long-term, committed relationship with another woman when she begins a low-residency MFA in fiction. Though it goes against the promises she’s made, she finds herself pulled into an intense affair with a married man, a well-known writer in the program. More than an essay about bisexual infidelity and the resulting heartbreaks, XO unfolds Rauch’s story like a map of psychic terrain, allowing the author to explore her longstanding obsessions with romantic love, personal faith and belief systems, and the stories we tell ourselves to get through our ever changing lives.
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Praise for XO
—Jen Winston, author of Greedy: Notes from a Bisexual Who Wants Too Much
—Kristine Langley Mahler, author of Curing Season: Artifacts
“Like a spider weaving its web, Sara Rauch deftly spins the romance and betrayal of a secret affair into the sparklingly complex XO. Something between a memoir and a meditation, this is less a straightforward narrative than a trace along the crooked whorl of self-discovery, as Rauch is shaped, reshaped, and perhaps at times misshapen by her deepest musings and most vulnerable moments of being. At turns exquisite and a little bit feral, XO offers a rich and profoundly generous exploration of love, spirituality, and the ways we find to make sense of life’s most enduring mysteries.”
—Marin Sardy, author of The Edge of Every Day
“In XO, Sara Rauch showcases an intricate honesty and lays bare the tender mercies of her life with such mesmerizing artistry. Here, Rauch shines as a mighty chronicler of identity and connection and love and how our own sweeping mythologies, like some unfolded map, can yield universal truths. A profound and sincere work.”
—Robert James Russell, author of Mesilla and Sea of Trees