Before, During, After — Richard Bausch

When Natasha, a talented young artist working as a congressional aide, meets Michael Faulk, an Episcopalian priest struggling with his faith, the stars seem to align. Within months they are engaged. Shortly before their wedding, while Natasha is vacationing in Jamaica and Faulk is in New York attending the wedding of a family friend, the terrorist attacks of September 11 shatter the tranquility of the nation's summer. Convinced that Faulk is dead, Natasha makes an error in judgment that leads to a private trauma. A few days later, she and Faulk are reunited, but the horror of that day and Natasha's inability to speak of it inexorably divide their relationship. They move to Memphis and begin their new life together, but their marriage quickly descends into repression, anxiety, and suspicion.