"1997: For Ros, starting university at Regis is an opportunity for reinvention-a chance to be seen as interesting, to be accepted by the in-crowd, and maybe even get a boyfriend. But when she meets her roommate, Megan, with her pleated jeans and horse-print bedding, she decides Megan is a loser, a liability. Outside of their dorm room, Ros distances herself from Megan and quickly befriends the cool kids-she'll do anything to stay in their circle, even tell lies. Just after winter break, an intense ice storm hits campus, triggering a reckless, week-long dorm party, during which Megan goes missing. Ros is blamed for the incident and abruptly dropped by her social circle, casting a shadow over the next two decades of her life. 2020: Ros's former partner, Lukas, the father of her eleven-year-old son, is accused of a sexual assault. In an unexpected weaving of two narratives, Ros is forced to revisit a dark moment from her past, and the events for which she has always held herself responsible. As new details of an old story come to light, Ros must take a hard look not only at the father of her child, but also at her own mistakes, her own trauma, and at the supposed liberal period she grew up in. The Damages is a page-turning, thought-provoking novel on the lies we tell other people and the lies we tell ourselves."-- Provided by publisher.