By Carol Gilligan
256 pages; Random House

Yes, she gets us. She always did. Carol Gilligan, the psychologist who transmuted our understanding of the female psyche with her 1982 study, In a Different Voice, breaks new ground with Kyra (Random House), a sensuous first novel exploring the permeable boundaries of women's inner and outer worlds. Kyra is an urban architect imprisoned by her tragic, romantic past; Andreas is the inventive theater director whose passion tempts and terrifies her. At the novel's hub: the intuitive interplay between Kyra and her therapist, Greta, laying bare the "revolutionary emotion" of love.

— Cathleen Medwick