Rayburn Affair - Laurie Petrou

Art, ambition and desire collide when a struggling academic becomes entangled in the life and marriage of her literary idol.

Art, ambition and desire collide when a struggling academic becomes entangled in the life and marriage of her literary idol.

By day, Dr Ruth Morgan lectures on ‘AI: the new frontier of storytelling’ at East Toronto University. By night, she toils away at a collection of short stories, fantasising about a literary career to rival that of the iconic Shelby Rayburn, internationally renowned and widely hailed as the voice of Ruth’s generation of women.

When Shelby and her husband, Oscar, make an appearance at an annual faculty party, Ruth can’t believe her luck. The trio immediately hit it off, and an intoxicating intimacy develops between them, underwritten by a simmering sexual tension. Everything changes when Shelby makes Ruth an offer she can’t refuse—one that she can’t tell anyone about, including Oscar. As boundaries blur and secret alliances form, the dynamic becomes riddled with distrust and threatens to implode. Ruth and Shelby need each other, but each has their own agenda when it comes to friendship, love and literary stardom.

Deepening her exploration of female friendships, art and fame, award-winning author Laurie Petrou returns with a campus novel that asks what it means to be a creator in an age where notions of authorship, relationships and notoriety seem dangerously undefinable.