Mating is a novel by American author Norman Rush

Norman Rush

Norman Rush is an American novelist whose introspective novels and short stories are set in Botswana in the 1980s. He is the son of Roger and Leslie Rush...

. It is a first-person narrative of an unnamed American anthropology

Anthropology

Anthropology is the study of humanity. It has origins in the humanities, the natural sciences, and the social sciences. The term "anthropology" is from the Greek anthrōpos , "man", understood to mean mankind or humanity, and -logia , "discourse" or "study", and was first used in 1501 by German...

 graduate student in Botswana

Botswana

Botswana, officially the Republic of Botswana , is a landlocked country located in Southern Africa. The citizens are referred to as "Batswana" . Formerly the British protectorate of Bechuanaland, Botswana adopted its new name after becoming independent within the Commonwealth on 30 September 1966...

 around 1980. It focuses on her relationship with Nelson Denoon, a controversial American anthropologist who runs an experimental women-only village in the Kalahari desert.

Mating won the 1991 National Book Award

National Book Award

The National Book Awards are a set of American literary awards. Started in 1950, the Awards are presented annually to American authors for literature published in the current year. In 1989 the National Book Foundation, a nonprofit organization which now oversees and manages the National Book...

 for fiction.

The cover art for Mating, as well as Rush's short story collection, Whites is taken from Bosch's triptych, The Garden of Earthly Delights

The Garden of Earthly Delights

The Garden of Earthly Delights is a triptych painted by the early Netherlandish master Hieronymus Bosch , housed in the Museo del Prado in Madrid since 1939. Dating from between 1490 and 1510, when Bosch was about 40 or 50 years old, it is his best-known and most ambitious work...

.