Lisa Halliday's debut novel is in two parts that seem unrelated. In the first, Alice, a young editorial assistant in New York in the early 2000s, begins an affair with Ezra Blazer, a famous and much older writer, and the novel shows their dinners, their humor and the imbalance between them. In the second, Amar Jaafari, an Iraqi-American economist, is detained at Heathrow airport on his way to see his brother in Kurdistan, and the story follows his thoughts. A short final section ties the two together and recasts what came before.
It's for readers who like formally inventive fiction and sharp observations of power in relationships. It's also a book about how authors use life as material, and it rewards careful reading.
Deep and thought-provoking; a moderate read.
Best for readers like The Deep Diver. Which reader are you?
- Published
- 2018
- Language
- EN
