Tessa is a successful writer who develops a friendship, first by correspondence and then in person, with Charlie, a ruggedly handsome philosopher and scholar. Sparks fly as they exchange ideas about Camus and masculine desire, and their intellectual connection promises more - but there are obstacles to this burgeoning relationship.
While Tessa's husband Milton enjoys Charlie's company, Charlie's wife Wah is a different case, and she proves to be both adversary and conundrum to Tessa. Wah's traditional femininity and subservience to her husband strike Tessa as weaknesses, and she scoffs at the sacrifices Wah makes as adoptive mother to a Burmese girl, Htet. But Wah has a kind of power too, especially over Charlie, and the conflict between the two women leads to Tessa's martini-fueled declaration that Wah is 'an insult to womankind.' As Tessa is forced to deal with the consequences of her outburst, she wonders if Wah is really as weak as she has seemed, or if she might have a different kind of strength altogether.
An exercise in empathy, an exploration of betrayal and a charged story of the thrill of a shared connection - and the perils of feminine rivalry - My Nemesis is a brilliantly dramatic and captivating story from a hugely talented writer.
Genre: Literary Fiction
While Tessa's husband Milton enjoys Charlie's company, Charlie's wife Wah is a different case, and she proves to be both adversary and conundrum to Tessa. Wah's traditional femininity and subservience to her husband strike Tessa as weaknesses, and she scoffs at the sacrifices Wah makes as adoptive mother to a Burmese girl, Htet. But Wah has a kind of power too, especially over Charlie, and the conflict between the two women leads to Tessa's martini-fueled declaration that Wah is 'an insult to womankind.' As Tessa is forced to deal with the consequences of her outburst, she wonders if Wah is really as weak as she has seemed, or if she might have a different kind of strength altogether.
An exercise in empathy, an exploration of betrayal and a charged story of the thrill of a shared connection - and the perils of feminine rivalry - My Nemesis is a brilliantly dramatic and captivating story from a hugely talented writer.
Genre: Literary Fiction
Praise for this book
"A blisteringly smart novel about feminism, identity and desire that refuses easy answers and will linger for a long time in my mind." - Monica Ali
"My Nemesis is an exhilarating act of defiance, a novel that lights a match and sends the whole question of female characters' likability up in flames...A fiercely philosophical novel that is also irresistibly, addictively readable." - Sarah Shun-lien Bynum
"Charmaine Craig's brilliant anatomization of mid-life art, identity, and infidelity shares in the intellectual grace and precision of its characters' philosophical pursuits, yet beneath the ruminative surface this book churns with desire and remorse." - Jonathan Lethem
"[A] sly, seething novel...It lays bare the horror of what husbands and wives expect of each other. My Nemesis is a pearl cultivated in justified rage. I loved it." - Sarah Manguso
"As deeply empathic as it is thrillingly addictive, My Nemesis is a stunning and brave literary feat. Charmaine Craig's searing prose and complex vision challenges us to abandon the safety and certainty of our own perspectives. What begins as a novel of female rivalry quickly transforms into a profound spiritual meditation on the danger of our inability - or unwillingness - to imagine and dignify the inner life of the other. With luminous grace, Craig's writing is a testament to the transcendent power and peace possible when we dare to try." - Fatima Farheen Mirza
"Charmaine Craig's My Nemesis is a spellbinding highwire act . . . a brutal exposition of the destructive underside of desire and the fragility of familial bonds. Craig's cutting sentences reveal how easily the life of the mind, sublime and addictive, can be transformed into a weapon that decimates lives. Perhaps most brilliantly, My Nemesis is a warning against the quiet grafting of racial power dynamics onto our most intimate networks of love. My Nemesis is a riveting clear-eyed burn of a book. Read it now!" - Azareen Van Der Vliet Oloomi
"I was bowled over by this brilliant narrative of desire, complicity, and the limits of empathy. My Nemesis is a compact masterpiece in the confessional mode, one that reverberates long after the last page is turned." - Antoine Wilson
"My Nemesis is an exhilarating act of defiance, a novel that lights a match and sends the whole question of female characters' likability up in flames...A fiercely philosophical novel that is also irresistibly, addictively readable." - Sarah Shun-lien Bynum
"Charmaine Craig's brilliant anatomization of mid-life art, identity, and infidelity shares in the intellectual grace and precision of its characters' philosophical pursuits, yet beneath the ruminative surface this book churns with desire and remorse." - Jonathan Lethem
"[A] sly, seething novel...It lays bare the horror of what husbands and wives expect of each other. My Nemesis is a pearl cultivated in justified rage. I loved it." - Sarah Manguso
"As deeply empathic as it is thrillingly addictive, My Nemesis is a stunning and brave literary feat. Charmaine Craig's searing prose and complex vision challenges us to abandon the safety and certainty of our own perspectives. What begins as a novel of female rivalry quickly transforms into a profound spiritual meditation on the danger of our inability - or unwillingness - to imagine and dignify the inner life of the other. With luminous grace, Craig's writing is a testament to the transcendent power and peace possible when we dare to try." - Fatima Farheen Mirza
"Charmaine Craig's My Nemesis is a spellbinding highwire act . . . a brutal exposition of the destructive underside of desire and the fragility of familial bonds. Craig's cutting sentences reveal how easily the life of the mind, sublime and addictive, can be transformed into a weapon that decimates lives. Perhaps most brilliantly, My Nemesis is a warning against the quiet grafting of racial power dynamics onto our most intimate networks of love. My Nemesis is a riveting clear-eyed burn of a book. Read it now!" - Azareen Van Der Vliet Oloomi
"I was bowled over by this brilliant narrative of desire, complicity, and the limits of empathy. My Nemesis is a compact masterpiece in the confessional mode, one that reverberates long after the last page is turned." - Antoine Wilson
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