Acts of Desperation Summary
Megan Nolan

Acts of Desperation Overview

Influenced by the Millennialist genre of confessionals detailed by emotionally damaged, deeply introspective individuals, Megan Nolan’s Acts of Desperation is told from the perspective of a twenty-something Irish woman. While living in Dublin, she falls for a Danish poet she meets at an art exhibit. The affair quickly escalates into an obsession. The novel, rendered in a burst of short chapters that mimic the unblinking honesty of diary entries, shifts between accounts of the volatile two-year affair and interchapters, set in Athens after the couple self-destructs, in which the woman struggles to make sense of the toxic relationship. The novel tackles, among others, themes of obsession, the dark logic of body shaming, the desperate urge to understand what the heart wants, the joy and terror of love, and the unsettling dynamic between sex and violence.