Admission / Korelitz, Jean Hanff

For years, 38-year-old Portia Nathan has avoided the past, hiding behind her busy (and sometimes punishing) career as a Princeton University admissions officer and her dependable domestic life. Her reluctance to confront the truth is suddenly overwhelmed by the resurfacing of a life-altering decision, and Portia is faced with an extraordinary test. Just as thousands of the nation's brightest students await her decision regarding their academic admission, so too must Portia decide whether to make her own ultimate admission. Admission is at once a fascinating look at the complex college admissions process and an emotional examination of what happens when the secrets of the past return and shake a woman's life to its core.

Portia, a thirty-eight-year-old admissions officer for Princeton University, finds her dependable life falling apart when her long-time lover leaves her for his pregnant girlfriend, a secret from her past threatens everything, and a controversial admissions decision causes problems at the college.