The Woman Upstairs (novel)

[1] Set in Cambridge, Massachusetts, the novel is told from the point of view of Nora Elridge, an elementary school teacher reflecting back on her life in 2004 when she became enchanted with the Shahids, a family of intellectuals she met while teaching their young son Reza.

In 2004, when Nora is 37, a little over a year after her mother's death, she is delighted to learn that a young Parisian boy, Reza Shahid, has been assigned to her classroom.

Nora agrees and begins working on her own project, a series of shoebox size dioramas of the rooms of famous women artists.

Instead, drawn closer to Skandar, she ends up having an intimate encounter with him one night at the studio, an event they quickly agree cannot be repeated.

One of the videos, which is sold out, was shot in Cambridge and Nora realizes it was taken when she was drunk and alone in the studio and dressed up like Edie Sedgewick and masturbated.