Mating by Norman Rush

Norman Rush is an American novelist whose introspective novels and short stories are set in Botswana in the 1980s. His novel, Mating, was chosen for the National Book Award in 1991. The unnamed narrator of this dazzlingly expansive novel is an obsessive American anthropologist chasing idealized love in the South African republic of Botswana in the early 1980’s. The story mainly takes place in a matriarchal community where the object of the narrator’s affection is the only man residing there. The book explores themes of utopian societies, geopolitics of poverty and the impact of good society. Rush is breathtaking in his sweeping intellect, a truly original and complex story.