Acts of Desperation

Acts of Desperation - Paperback

$18.99
$18.99
Skip to product information
Acts of Desperation
  • Acts of Desperation
Acts of Desperation - Paperback

Acts of Desperation - Paperback

by Megan Nolan
$18.99
$18.99

Book Overview

by Megan Nolan (Author)

A riveting, cathartic literary debut about love, addiction, and what it does to us.

Wouldn't I do anything to reverse my loss, the absence of him?

In the first scene of this provocative gut-punch of a novel, our unnamed narrator meets a magnetic writer named Ciaran and falls, against her better judgment, completely in his power. After a brief, all-consuming romance he abruptly rejects her, sending her into a tailspin of jealous obsession and longing. If he ever comes back to her, she resolves to hang onto him and his love at all costs, even if it destroys her ...

Part breathless confession, part lucid critique, Acts of Desperation renders a consciousness split between rebellion and submission, between escaping degradation and eroticizing it, between loving and being lovable. With unsettling, electric precision, Nolan dissects one of life's most elusive mysteries: Why do we want what we want, and how do we want it?

Heralding the arrival of a stunning new literary talent, Acts of Desperation interrogates the nature of fantasy, desire, and power, challenging us to reckon honestly with our own insatiability.

"A blistering anti-romance." --Catherine Lacey, author of Biography of X

"Hot as viscera." --The New Republic

Author Biography

Megan Nolan was born in Waterford, Ireland and lives in London. Her essays, fiction and reviews published in the New York Times, the White Review, the New Statesman, the Sunday Times, the Village Voice, the Guardian, and in the literary anthology Winter Papers. Acts of Desperation is her first novel.

Number of Pages: 288
Dimensions: 0.8 x 8.24 x 5.56 IN
Publication Date: September 27, 2022
ISBN9780316429832
Author Megan Nolan
PublisherBack Bay Books
GenreLiterature
FormatPaperback
PublishedSeptember 2022
LanguageENG- English
Pages288
Weight1.0 lb
Target AudienceAdults
Print SizeStandard Print

Related Subjects

Coming of Age Fiction Literary Psychological

1% fer Each of the Seven Seas

Every purchase sends 7% of our profits to The Ocean Cleanup. No fine print, no opt-in — just how we sail.

Whoever Ye Be, Welcome Aboard

Queer lit, music, art, philosophy, fiction — stories for every kind of soul. Come as ye are, matey.

More by Megan Nolan

Ordinary Human Failings

Ordinary Human Failings - Paperback

Ordinary Human Failings - Paperback

By Megan Nolan

About Megan Nolan

Megan Nolan is an Irish writer based in New York. Her debut novel, Acts of Desperation, was an international bestseller, the recipient of a Betty Trask Award, and nominated for the Dylan Thomas Prize and the Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year Award. Her second, Ordinary Human Failings, was nominated for the George Orwell prize for Political Fiction, the Nero Prize, and the Women's Prize, among others. She is the 2025 Sewanee School of Letters John Grammer Fellow.

You may also like