Description

‘A triumph of tone and, ultimately, of the imagination.’ Guardian
‘Strange and hilarious and so, so sharp.’ Monica Heisey
‘When a book reaches out and speaks to a reader so clearly, one can hardly do anything but recommend it in the highest terms.’ Spectator

A New Statesman, New Yorker and Financial Times Book of the Year.

From one of the most celebrated imaginations in American literature, Lorrie Moore’s new novel is a magic box of longing and surprise.

High up in a New York City hospice, Finn sits with his beloved brother Max, who is slipping from one world into the next. But when a phone call summons Finn back to a troubled old flame, a strange journey begins, opening a trapdoor in reality. It will prompt a questioning of life and death, grief and the past, comedy and tragedy, and the diaphanous separations that lie between them all.

‘Moore writes with such panache, such extraordinary perception and wit, that not a single sentence is wasted.’ Elizabeth Day
‘Witty, but never merely clever, and tender without sentimentality.’ Hilary Mantel