66 Laps Winner of the Pirates Alley Faulkner Prize KIRKUS (starred) “A sweet contemporary love story with an old fashioned message” PUBLISHERS WEEKLY “witty dialogue, a lean plot and a few terrific one-liners…slickly composed and smoothly engaging.” N.P.R.: ALL THINGS CONSIDERED “A neatly made drama about the plight of modern marriage.” USA TODAY “Laps represents the dark side of fidelity and family life. The book is suspenseful, the prose spare. Dip into 66 Laps and you may well feel compelled to race to the finish…” BALTIMORE SUN “Another beautifully written debut novel. Spirson’s themes are trust and suspicion and self-sabotage…Spirson profoundly challenges the wisdom of women returning to hearth and home to the exclusion of meaningful work.” BOOKLIST “An enjoyable, quick read.” BOOKREPORTER.COM "Here's a book I'd like to see end up on Oprah's list: a revenge story that takes an evil twist and, in the process, makes short order of every question about marriage that contemporary feminists have about not only the institution, itself, but the people who enter into it. 66 LAPS...plays like a great movie." PIRATE'S ALLEY FAULKNER PRIZE - JUDGE’S SPEECH “The prose is luminous and passionate, and the story of Audrey’s season of doubt and love is irresistible and ultimately heartbreaking. The author knows what Tolstoy knew, that it’s the simple, ordinary life that is the most terrible, the most tragic, the most compelling... The voice is engaging, the characters memorable and moving, the subject important. You can’t trust a woman in love Audrey tells us. Indeed. --John Dufresne CHAPTER ONE I slapped the bitch. I didn’t plan to, but that doesn’t mean it was an accident. Some say life is one big accident, or a series of accidents, but that’s not true. Accidents don’t just happen. They happen when someone is careless. He didn’t care any less; I cared too much about things that meant less. If only I could take it back, use my manners, let it go. I carry the what-ifs with me, heavy as my heartbeat. SYNOPSIS When a ‘friend’ points out Audrey’s first gray hair, Audrey slaps her. She dives into the pool, her safe haven, but the sound echoes, causing her to act on impulse and emotion. Riddled with insecurity, Audrey is plagued by the attention her husband gives to a needy woman at work. Worse, the babe is no bimbo, she is a lot like Audrey - except younger. She debates her feelings with her colorful family and friends. But when Audrey asks her husband about it, he lies. Convinced her husband is having an affair, Audrey is flattered by the attention of a younger man and becomes drawn to him out of curiosity, sexual attraction, and finally, a vengeful desire to stay even with her husband. Then she learns the truth: her husband was never unfaithful. And worse: she is pregnant. Audrey’s betrayal is only the beginning of her descent into hell. The ultimate tragedy is like a game of dominoes played by all the characters, a game set in motion when her husband finds out…. |
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