Mating

Norman Rush · b. 1933 · United States

Why it matters

An unnamed, formidably intelligent American anthropologist narrates her courtship of a charismatic visionary building a utopian, women-run development community in the Kalahari. Rush's National Book Award winner makes courtship and utopian politics equally demanding, equally seductive subjects.

At a glance

Dense, allusive, argument-driven prose and a narrator's restless intelligence ask for sustained concentration.