This poetry collection by the acclaimed author of Citizen presents an “inexhaustibly complex, varied, and . . . grimly inventive” meditation on maternity (Verse).

In Claudia Rankine’s Plot, an expectant mother, Liv, and her husband, Erland, find themselves propelled into one of our most basic plots: boy loves girl, girl gets pregnant. Liv’s respect for life, however, makes her reluctant to bring a new life into the world.

The couple’s electrifying journey is charted through dreams, conversations, and reflections. A text like no other, it crosses genres, existing at times in poetry, at times in dialogue and prose, in order to arrive at new life and baby Ersatz. This stunning, avant-garde performance enacts what it means to be human, and to invest in humanity.

“Plot moves as in a picaresque novel, in which the body schemes and frightens, accompanied by Claudia Rankine’s instinct for poetic surprise.” —Barbara Guest, poet and author of Herself Defined