Symptomatic Tapa dura - 2004

de Danzy Senna

A novel of acute psychological tension and unsettling questions of identity-the much-anticipated follow-up to Senna's groundbreaking debut, Caucasia.

Danzy Senna's tantalizing new novel centers on a college graduate, recently moved to New York City for what promises to be a dream job-a prestigious fellowship writing for a respected magazine. Displaced, though, and unsure of how she fits into the world around her, she becomes the object of an older woman's attention: both women share the same difficult-to-place skin color. As the older woman's interest turns to obsession, the narrator must figure out what their relationship means to her-while both of their lives seem to be spiraling out of control.

Senna's Caucasia was a highly acclaimed debut that went on to become a contemporary classic. In Symptomatic, she takes questions of identity a step further, in a beautifully written novel that is at once suspenseful, erotic, clever, and, as The New York Times wrote of Caucasia, "deeply intelligent."