Synopsis:
In her wise and sexy new collection, Sallie Bingham examines modern-day "transgressions" in affairs of the heart. She offers up a minage trois, an older woman's affair with a student, a painter who uses his age as an excuse to behave indecorously. But the reader quickly discovers the real transgressions are those of the self against the self.

In "The Pump, " a woman lies about her love life because she worries that "abandoned women look like dying witches." In "The One True Place, " a gay couple shelter a young man, though they understand he will erode their relationship. Bingham's stories are told with a sober reticence and the authority of real-life ambiguity; confusions of desire and morality, ambition and regret underlie each beautifully crafted tale.

A noted feminist and the author of seven works of prose, Sallie Bingham brings to this book the skills of a passionate classicist. In the manner of Chekhov, the grand events of a life compete for attention with the dirty litter box, the just-noticed aging spots on a character's hand, the casual remark that changes everything. Again and again we are startled by such seemingly humble juxtapositions. There is terrific gravity to these calmly told stories.

Transgressions marks an important milestone in this distinguished writer's career.