Eileen is a story about a woman working as a secretary at a juvenile prison, while living with and caring for her abusive father, who suffers from paranoia and alcoholism. Eileen revisits events from her childhood in a town in Massachusetts, she names only as "X-ville."
Her second novel,
My Year Of Rest and Relaxation (2018) is about a woman who recently graduated from college, is living in New York City, and mourning the death of her parents. With the help of a psychiatrist and sleeping pills, the woman decides to sleep for a year.
Moshfegh has written many short works as well, including the novella
McGlue and the collection of short stories
Homesick For Another World, published in 2017, and has had six stories published in the Paris Review.
Ottessa Moshfegh is married to the writer
Luke Goebel.