Infraction

Life has never been easy for those who do not fit cleanly into society’s mold. Marya Zhukova knows this well: as a budding mathematician and intellectual, she does not easily fit with the late nineteenth century Russian high society her aunt belongs to. On top of that, she has no interest in marrying a man; all her romantic and sexual interests are for women. Her aunt, however, wants her to marry so she can have security in her later life and avoid the scorn she herself faced for being an old maid.

Then Marya meets Vera Dashkova, who catches her heart completely. Nothing will ever be simple again.

Infraction is a beautiful but tragic love story, which is told beautifully. Marya’s mathematical metaphors give the prose an edge that sets it apart from other romances, and the setting of late Imperial Russia flavors every page, showing each hour Zipter must have put into her research. My one complaint is that sometimes the beauty of the prose overwhelms the plot. I felt so much for each character, even poor tragic Sergei, that I sometimes found myself a little lost when it came to figuring out the action of the story. Still, I have to give it five stars; this is one of the most touching love stories I’ve read lately.