Acts of Service

December 1, 2021

Young, queer, and Brooklyn-based, Eve has an adventurous streak that leads her to post nude photos of herself online. This is how she meets sly Olivia and through Olivia the magnetic Nathan, and they form a triangle allowing them--and the author--to explore sex, desire, and identity. From a former fiction reader for The New Yorker; film rights sold.

Copyright 2021 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

March 21, 2022
Fishman’s alluring if punctilious debut poses questions about sex, sexuality, and power via the story of a young woman’s exploration of desire. Eve, 27, a bisexual waitress living in New York City who had previously chosen to sleep exclusively with women, posts some nudes on an online message board without her girlfriend’s knowledge. When a woman named Olivia messages her and asks her to meet up, Eve does, and she is soon embroiled in a torrid affair with the upper-class Olivia and Nathan, a tall, hetero, 30-something investment banker Olivia was already sleeping with, who gets off (and gets them off) on erotic passages from his book collection. Eve begins to question the power dynamics of the threesome after she learns that Olivia works for Nathan; she also wonders about the politics of her heterosexual lust: “So I’m supposed to think I can’t damage myself, that things don’t hurt me, if I choose them, if I see them clearly? Isn’t that just the deepest submission to power?” The prose is smooth and smart, and the sex scenes elicit maximum titillation, but the result, which conforms to contemporary sub-dom lifestyle dynamics as the narrator explores her conflicting desires, ultimately feels more tame than transgressive. Fishman has a great deal of talent, though this feels a lot like 50 Shades of Grey for the Ivy League set. Agent: Dan Kirshen, ICM Partners.

April 1, 2022
Posting a naked selfie online leads Eve into a fraught m�nage � trois with Olivia and Nathan, a wealthy couple with secrets of their own. A 20-something bisexual in a fulfilling and happy relationship with a woman, Eve finds herself thrust down the dark, twisted, and sometimes frightening path of desiring a man's attention. Along the way, she becomes obsessed with Nathan, by turns jealous and protective of Olivia, and distant from Romi, her devoted girlfriend of many years. When the sexual games that Nathan and Olivia are playing result in a legal dispute with a third woman, Eve must face her own complicity, the true nature of her relationship with Nathan, and the lengths she is willing to go to protect him. A coldhearted, unflinching, and unromantic chronicle of sexual exploits, emotional manipulation, and, above all, power, this debut novel explores the unconscious desires that can unravel a person's very sense of self. Eve notes that her desire for Nathan's attention is, in part, born out of envy for his emotional independence: "I wondered how I could get what he had--absolute freedom, a life of embodied prowess, in which I might float through a landscape of love and sex without promising myself to anyone." Reminiscent of Sally Rooney's work, this challenging--and often disturbing--exploration of sex, bodies, narcissism, and a culture that no longer values sincerity is tonally darker and rife with cruelty. When Nathan tells Eve that he knew just what she wanted without asking, she is struck not by the intimacy of the statement but "the soft hush of certainty" in his words. But is this submission to a man what she really wants--or is it what she's been convinced, all her life, that she deserves? An evocative exploration of desire and sexuality, this dark debut will cause readers to question the very nature of consent.

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