Trespass

Maggie Gifford is shocked to see a strange man bathing in her laundry tub, but even more shocked by her response: an offer to scrub his back. Unleashing an erotic madness reminiscent of A Midsummer Night's Dream, this peculiar stranger runs amok in the Gifford's annual summer get-together in the countryside of Massachusetts. But the Gifford family is not without its own peculiarities. Maggie is secretly loved and desired by her cousin Jake, a remittance man and mail-order minister. Jake lives on the border of Maggie's life, on the farm adjacent to Maggie's house. His beautiful gardens are a daily tribute to Maggie, and on each birthday he constructs a magical room in the woods made entirely of flowers, plants, and trees, for her to find. But someone has poisoned Jake's flowers and his relationship with Maggie - destroying the delicate arrangement he spent years trying to create. Is it Maggie's daughter who lures men with her angst-ridden poetry; Jake's semi-girlfriend, an installation artist who runs a Volvo dealership; or the disarming shadow of a man who is trespassing in their woods and hearts? In this exquisite first novel, Mazur shows, with humor and grace, that despite the well-tended garden of life, desire and nature have the power to break loose, which can lead to an explosion of random beauty.