From the recipient of the PENMalamud Award the Literature Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters and the Rea Award for the Short Story a gorgeously rendered passionate account of a relationship threatened by secrets set against the backdrop of national tragedy When Natasha a talented young artist working as a congressional aide meets Michael Faulk an Episcopalian priest struggling with his faith the stars seem to align Although he is nearly two decades older they discover in each other the happy yearning and exhilaration of lovers and within months they are engaged Shortly before their wedding while Natasha is vacationing in Jamaica and Faulk is in New York attending the wedding of a family friend the terrorist attacks of September shatter the tranquillity of the nationrsquos summer Alone in a state of abject terror cut off from America and convinced that Faulk is dead Natasha makes an error in judgment that leads to a private trauma of her own on the Caribbean shore A few days later she and Faulk are reunited but the horror of that day and Natasharsquos inability to speak of it inexorably divide their relationship into ldquobeforerdquo and ldquoafterrdquo They move to Memphis and begin their new life together but their marriage quickly descends into repression anxiety and suspicion In prose that is direct exact and lyrical Richard Bausch plumbs the complexities of public and personal trauma and the courage with which we learn to face them Above all Before During After is a love story offering a penetrating and exquisite portrait of intimacy of spiritual and physical longing and of the secrets we convince ourselves to keep even as they threaten to destroy us An unforgettable tour de force from one of Americarsquos most distinguished storytellers.
