Big Swiss

Living in an 18th-century dilapidated house in Hudson, NY, Greta works as a transcriber for Om, the city’s New Age amateur sex therapist. Om sees lots of clients, but the one Greta calls Big Swiss becomes her obsession. Big Swiss’s fresh attitude—stoic, gorgeous, funny, but with a troubled history—appeals to Greta, who has secrets of her own. One day at the dog park, Greta recognizes Big Swiss’s voice. She introduces herself with a fake name, and the two soon begin an obsessive relationship. When Greta’s guilt about lying begins to eat at her, she realizes she will go to great lengths to save the relationship. Beagin’s (Vacuum in the Dark) latest is a dark, twisted, and humorous take on mental health, trauma, existence, and sex. A full cast of narrators led by Rebecca Lowman and Stephen Graybill capture the obsessive, playful, damaged characters as they struggle to embrace life while working through grief and past trauma. Though the topics are weighty, the novel is buoyed by the characters’ wittiness and self-deprecating tones.