Turner Gable Kahn is the author of the debut novel The Dirty Version, a feminist
contemporary romance about a novelist and an intimacy coordinator who are forced to
collaborate on new steamy scenes for the TV adaptation of her book. Set between South
Florida and Hollywood, it’s a slow-burn love story that explores power, creative control,
and emotional intimacy.
Recently I asked Kahn about what she was reading. Her reply:
One of the books I keep returning to—mentally and emotionally—is Everything’s Fine by Cecilia Rabess. On the surface, it’s a workplace romance between two people on opposite ends of the political spectrum: Jess, a young Black analyst starting out at a finance firm, and Josh, her smug, conservative coworker. But of course, it’s not really a romance in the traditional sense. It’s a razor-sharp exploration of power, identity, race, and the emotional gymnastics involved in navigating proximity to someone who can’t—or won’t—see the world the way you do.Visit Turner Gable Kahn's website.
What struck me most is how Rabess lets the emotional tension simmer under the surface of everyday interactions. The love story feels both impossible and deeply believable, which is what makes the book so haunting. She writes the desperation between them so well—the push and pull, the longing, the ache of two people who can’t seem to stay away. It reminded me of the magnetic attraction between the two main characters in Sally Rooney’s Normal People, but filtered through a lens of cultural tension and emotional realism that’s entirely Rabess’s own.
I admire how unflinching it is—how it refuses to resolve itself neatly. It reminded me that the most provocative fiction doesn’t always shout; sometimes it just sits with the discomfort and lets you feel it long after you’ve turned the last page.
Q&A with Turner Gable Kahn.
My Book, The Movie: The Dirty Version.
--Marshal Zeringue
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