UC Davis

In This Body is a novel that follows Laura, a young woman living in rural Southern Oregon, as she navigates a failing marriage, grief, ideals of love, and undiagnosed chronic pain. When pain begins impacting her relationship with her husband and her sense of self, Laura discovers online health forums and meets a queer woman who unintentionally opens up Laura’s understanding of her sexuality. In her relationship with this woman and, eventually, within a local queer community, Laura is forced to confront her own becoming at the risk of collapsing the expectations that have held up her life. The novel intimately chronicles the dramas that take place within Laura’s body, on the surface of her skin and in her sensual relationship to the natural world. It hopes to complicate linear narratives around cure and queerness.