Greta pays her bills by transcribing tapes for a sex therapist, and she's falling for his newest client, a tall, stoic married woman she fondly calls Big Swiss, who has a past as traumatic as her own but a smarter, fresher way of dealing with it. Then they meet inadvertently, with Greta hiding her identity, which leads to the best relationship she has ever had. Following Pretend I'm Dead and Vacuum in the Dark, both short-listed for major awards.

The Bollinger short-listed Beagin (Vacuum in the Dark) confronts sexuality, relationships, addiction, violence, and small-town living in a novel featuring damaged people striving to become whole. When Greta was 13 years old, her mother died by suicide, and she was raised by a series of relatives, each a little less savory than the last. As an adult, she dumps her fiancé of 10 years and starts afresh by moving to a small New York town, where she consults a therapist and eventually becomes his transcriptionist. Greta soon becomes intrigued with a woman she nicknames Big Swiss, whose therapy sessions she is transcribing, but she can't venture any closer; she's constrained by her confidentiality agreement with the therapist. Then she accidentally encounters Big Swiss at the dog park and recognizes her voice. Big Swiss is looking for a friend, but the relationship soon turns sexual, which means Greta must lie about who she is. What that means for the relationship eventually forces Greta to confront her past. VERDICT Beagin mixes biting humor and deadly serious topics to create a complex and compelling narrative that readers of redemption stories will enjoy.—Joanna M. Burkhardt

Beagin (Vacuum in the Dark) delivers a delightfully off-kilter romantic comedy set in a Hudson Valley increasingly transformed by transplants from New York City. The protagonist, Greta, is in her 40s, living in a semi-derelict Dutch farmhouse in Hudson, N.Y., with her beloved dog, Piñón. Greta is working as a transcriptionist for a local sex therapist named Om when she is captivated by the voice of one of Om's patients, a 30-something married woman whom she nicknames Big Swiss for her height and nationality, who used to live in Brooklyn. At the dog park, Greta and Big Swiss (whose real name is Flavia) meet by chance, and romance between the two blossoms, complicated by the fact that Greta is privy to Big Swiss's most private inner thoughts. While the interpersonal intrigue is palpable, this is also very much a novel about place, full of alternately snide and affectionate commentary about the rapidly gentrifying town. When encountering another of the therapist's patients and his wife at a coffee shop, Greta notes, "like most people in Hudson, they were better looking than average and dressed like boutique farmers." Beagin is a gifted storyteller with a flair for the eccentric and a soft spot for a wayward soul. This unconventional love story has a surplus of appeal from page one. Agent: Amanda Urban, ICM Partners. (Feb.)