Attention-Seeking Behavior: A Novel

By: Aea Varfis-van Warmelo

Published by Graywolf Press, 2026-05-19

A confession from a liar that exposes the interrelation of language, control, performance, intimacy, and love

I have never told anyone about this before. There is no way to prove that it happened, but why would I lie?

The narrator of Attention-Seeking Behavior wants to tell you about Normal Ben, the man she’s been seeing: their running jokes, the stories she’s told him. She wants to tell you about the incorrect belief that tiny facial expressions betray a person’s real feelings. She wants to tell you about the time she went to a therapist to try to cure her lying habit. She wants to tell you about the body she found on a walk through the park. She wants to tell you about lies she’s told her demeaning, erratic boss. She wants to tell you about the history of police interrogation techniques, which use deception to extract false confessions. She wants to tell you that all lie-detection methods are phony. She wants to tell you what it’s like to read opposing testimonies in a sexual assault case. She wants to tell you about her ex-boyfriend, who is a liar. But is she telling you the truth—or does she only want your attention?