This is an article about a book. For the non-confrontational method of handling conflict, see avoidance (conflict).

Avoidance is a 2002 novel by Michael Lowenthal

Michael Lowenthal

Michael Lowenthal is an American fiction writer, author of three novels, most recently, Charity Girl . Currently an instructor of creative writing at Lesley University and Boston College, he has been the recipient of fellowships from the Bread Loaf and Wesleyan writers' conferences, the...

. It was nominated for a Lambda Literary Award

Lambda Literary Award

Lambda Literary Awards are awarded yearly by the US-based Lambda Literary Foundation to published works which celebrate or explore LGBT themes. Categories include Humor, Romance and Biography. To qualify, a book must have been published in the United States in the year current to the award...

 in 2003.

Avoidance explores the topics of child sexual abuse

Child sexual abuse

Child sexual abuse is a form of child abuse in which an adult or older adolescent uses a child for sexual stimulation. Forms of child sexual abuse include asking or pressuring a child to engage in sexual activities , indecent exposure with intent to gratify their own sexual desires or to...

, hebephilia

Hebephilia

Hebephilia refers to the sexual preference for individuals in the early years of puberty . Girls typically begin the process of puberty at age 10 or 11; boys at age 11 or 12...

 and pederasty

Pederasty

Pederasty or paederasty is an intimate relationship between an adult and an adolescent boy outside his immediate family. The word pederasty derives from Greek "love of boys", a compound derived from "child, boy" and "lover".Historically, pederasty has existed as a variety of customs and...

. It is also about social conventions and mores

Mores

Mores, in sociology, are any given society's particular norms, virtues, or values. The word mores is a plurale tantum term borrowed from Latin, which has been used in the English language since the 1890s....

, and ways in which they depend on environment and upbringing.

Plot summary

Jeremy is a 28-year-old man working at the summer camp where he spent a childhood summer and where he found a true sense of family after the death of his father. Jeremy now works at the camp as an assistant director.

He becomes infatuated with Max, a disturbed 14-year-old. When Max confides in him that he has been sexually abused by the camp director, a victim of sexual abuse himself, Jeremy realises just how close he came to actually committing the same crime.