Jen Beagin

Greta lives with her friend Sabine in an ancient Dutch farmhouse in Hudson, New York. The house, built in 1737, is unrenovated, uninsulated, and full of bees. Greta spends her days transcribing therapy sessions for a sex coach who calls himself Om. She becomes infatuated with his newest client, a repressed married woman she affectionately refers to as Big Swiss, since she’s tall, stoic, and originally from Switzerland. Greta is fascinated by Big Swiss’s refreshing attitude toward trauma. They both have dark histories, but Big Swiss chooses to remain unattached to her suffering while Greta continues to be tortured by her past.

One day, Greta recognizes Big Swiss’s voice in town and contrives a meeting. They quickly become enmeshed. Although Big Swiss is unaware of Greta’s true identity, Greta has never been more herself with anyone. Her attraction to Big Swiss overrides her guilt, and she’ll do anything to sustain the relationship…

A Novel

Big Swiss

Helen 

FEW: I'm told my voice is like a blade. When I pick out pastries at the bakery, it sounds like I'm ordering someone's execution.

The first time hed mentioned it to a client, hed aid, "I waxed my gong for you, in case you wanted a sound bath at the end of our session" which Greta had transcribed as "I waxed my dong for you. Om had texted a few days later: "Its gong, honey, not dong,” a phrase Greta now repeated to herself at random. 

"The ceiling's great," Sabine agreed. "But the main reason this room is beautiful is because it's perfectly square. A perfectly square room is extremely rare. It does something to your brain chemistry:"

Cloudface

She’d never claimed an identity for the same reasons she’d never gotten tattoos. She couldn’t imagine settling on anything. 

Big Swiss quotes

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