1996 Ontario Trillium Literary Award — Shortlisted
1996 Discover These Great New Writers, Barnes and Noble Award — Shortlisted


What begins as a young woman’s infatuation soon escalates into a piercing study in power, obsession, and the disparity between art and reality.


In this elegant novel of passion and art, award-winning Ann Ireland extends the boundaries of the traditional love story. The Instructor probes the nature of power shifts between man and woman, teacher and student. It is a story of needs that become twisted into obsession.

Simone Paris is nineteen when she leaves a small town bound for Mexico with her art instructor, Otto Guest. Their affair is loaded with desire, not only physical but intellectual. Theirs is a mutual addiction made up of philosophy and shared aesthetic interest, entwined with sexual fascination. Six years after their relationship crumbles, Otto returns to Simone. His reappearance triggers vivid memories which she expresses in a voice matured by experience and regret.