Nava Renek’s beautifully crafted stories in Mating in Captivity cover every aspect of mating anyone could think of—between single lovers, married lovers, friends, the divorced, the soon-to-be divorced, best friends, former friends, former enemies, the childless, those with children, and those who obsessively desire children—people whose compulsive mulling and wondering why they do what they do leads them nowhere. Except maybe back to bed. Read Mating in Captivity and you will surely recognize yourself. Lynda Schor, author of Seduction and The Body Parts Shop Mating in Captivity’s pitch-perfect stories of men and women, lust and disappointment, intoxication and betrayal, contain a gorgeous emotional clarity that I associate with some of my favorite fiction writers: Jean Rhys, Elena Ferrante, Alice McDermott. Renek’s characters navigate cities and divorces, harbor secret affairs and unspoken yearnings, perform small acts of desperation or damage control, float their hope or regret on generous fingers of alcohol, and tread the perilous waters of what we so broadly call “middle age.” These maturing lives are full of regressive habits as they circle the drain and earn each revelation the hard way, the second or third or tenth time around. Karen Lillis, author of Watch The Doors As They Close