Norman Rush (born 1933) is an American novelist. He and his wife spent five years working with the Peace Corps in Botswana, an experience he drew on in his fiction. Set around an experimental village in the Kalahari, “Mating” follows an American anthropology student whose research has stalled. She travels to meet the man who founded the village, where women hold the leading roles, and their developing relationship unfolds alongside debates about how the community should work. “Mating” won the 1991 National Book Award for Fiction. Set in Botswana after the Cold War, “Mortals” brings together espionage and a marriage under strain. Ray Finch teaches as cover for his CIA work. An activist calling for wealth to be redistributed to the poor draws the agency’s attention, while Ray’s wife Iris is moved by the activist’s message. Ray also begins to suspect that Iris is involved with the doctor treating her.
