By Sophia Veltfort
A woman looking for her father, an anonymous sperm donor, believes she’s found him in a disgraced anesthesiologist who denies paternity but with whom she becomes increasingly entangled.
Publication Date: November 10th, 2026
Hardcover: 9781646054480
eBook: 9781646054497
Description
A woman looking for her father, an anonymous sperm donor, believes she’s found him in a disgraced anesthesiologist who denies paternity but with whom she becomes increasingly entangled.
Sylvia is the daughter of two loving mothers, but she has always wanted to know her father. When she moves back to New York City, a dossier arrives from her moms, with a new lead: Dean, an anesthesiologist who may bear some responsibility in the death of a pop star. At the same time, Sylvia meets Molly, a woman with her own family mysteries, with whom she makes a deal: they will help each other in the search for each other’s biological families. These three are drawn into a series of narrative games, games that leave Sylvia and Molly reeling and faced with a choice about the kinds of stories in which they are willing to participate. With the propulsive prose and psychological intensity of Patricia Highsmith, Veltfort probes questions of inheritance and intimacy, the allure of obsession, and misunderstandings that shape our lives.
Biographical Note
Sophia Veltfort's fiction has appeared in Prairie Schooner, Writer’s Digest online (first place, Annual Writing Competition), the Santa Monica Review, Narrative online (30 Below Contest finalist), the Chicago Tribune online (Nelson Algren finalist), Alaska Quarterly Review, and elsewhere. Her nonfiction has appeared in Harvard Review and been selected as a Notable Essay in the Best American Essays. After graduating from Yale, she studied on a Marshall Scholarship at Oxford and the University of East Anglia, then completed a Joint MFA / PhD at Cornell. She grew up in New York City with her two moms, three cats, and four avocado plants, and she currently teaches creative writing at Yale.