As college campuses struggle to address issues of sexual assault, a debut novel takes on this challenging and controversial topic with both urgency and sensitivity. In Ellen Bravo’s new book Again and Again, a college sexual assault comes back to haunt multiple parties 30 years after it occurs, when the perpetrator—now a champion of women’s rights causes—becomes a candidate for political office.
Told in both flashbacks and the present day, Again and Again centers on protagonist Deborah Borenstein, whose college roommate was date raped in 1978. Now, decades later, Deborah is a Washington, D.C., executive in a women’s rights organization and her husband is the campaign manager for the candidate running against the one-time rapist. As Deborah struggles over whether to go public with what she knows about this would-be senator, she encounters widely divergent perspectives from her old roommate and her husband. In the process, she must come to terms with herself as a wife, friend, mother and feminist.
Again and Again is a powerful story of betrayal, forgiveness and how we make peace with the past. Bravo has taken on an extremely complex current social issue with grace and compassion. Her fine writing and perceptive characters are absorbing and dramatic, pulling in readers from beginning to end.
A Cleveland native, Bravo now makes her home in Wisconsin. She is the award-winning author of three nonfiction books. Bravo will appear at Alverno College’s Alumnae Hall at 6:30 p.m. on Tuesday, April 5 and at the UW-Milwaukee Student Union Fireside Lounge at 7 p.m. on Tuesday, April 12.
Stay on top of the news of the day
Subscribe to our free, daily e-newsletter to get Milwaukee's latest local news, restaurants, music, arts and entertainment and events delivered right to your inbox every weekday, plus a bonus Week in Review email on Saturdays.
Book Happening:
Lauren Conrad
7 p.m., Friday, April 1
Boswell Book Co.
2559 N. Downer Ave.
With spring on the horizon, many of us are feeling more social, and Lauren Conrad’s new how-to guide is essential reading for all seasonal party planners. Lauren Conrad Celebrate provides clever tips to entertaining, as told through highly original and engaging narratives. Conrad will host a ticketed event at Boswell Book Co. on Friday, April 1.
