Three Great Books #24
Back from the dead, murder on the beach, and my favorite book of the summer.
My Murder, by Katie Williams
“I was supposed to be getting dressed for the party, the first since my murder.” So begins this novel, set in the not-too-distant future, narrated by Louise, who has been cloned as part of a controversial new government program. She and four other women, also resurrected through cloning, were victims of a serial killer. Now they’re trying to get their lives back on track and rebuild their relationships, while attending a survivors’ group to work out their issues. (Though as Louise wryly notes, “The name was a lie. None of us had survived.”) Louise loves her husband, Silas, and her 9-month-old daughter, Nova, but something feels off in their interactions. Her dad is acting distant. Louise also can’t bring herself to unpack a go-bag on the bottom of her closet, packed by the original Louise during a postpartum depression. So she tries to figure out who she was before, and what happened to her. I loved the near-future world-building, and I truly didn’t see the surprisingly moving ending coming.
A Line in the Sand, by Kevin Powers
This is a smart, very well-written mix of detective procedural and geopolitical thriller. Arman Bajalan, an interpreter for U.S. forces in Iraq and now settled in Virginia on a special immigrant visa, finishes his morning ocean swim a little later than usual and then discovers a corpse on the beach. When detectives Catherine Wheeler and Lamar Adams investigate, things get odd: the dead man is in extremely good physical shape, has no I.D., and is wearing a nice suit. Their criminal investigation runs parallel to newspaper reporter Sally Ewell’s journalistic investigation into Decision Tree International, a military contractor, and its CEO Trevor Graves. It’s not a spoiler to say that the storylines converge, as Decision Tree inches towards a big new contract and a cash-out for investors and it becomes clear that the life of Arman and anyone protecting him is in danger. This is fast-moving and compelling. It’s high praise to note that my husband, who usually only has time to read sad Mets blog posts, stayed up late to read this after I was done.
Still Life, by Sarah Winman
My summer reading tends to be plot-heavy and fast-moving (see examples above). But this 2021 novel, which is slower-paced and spans decades, is my favorite of the last several months and possibly of the year. That’s in part because it taps into my not-so-secret fantasy of moving to Italy, but mostly because Winman uses gorgeous language to slowly unspool a series of complicated, appealing characters. The book begins in 1944 Tuscany. Ulysses Temper, a young British soldier, meets “English spinster” and art historian Evelyn Skinner, who is attempting to help the Allied Military Government recover master artworks from buildings damaged by bombs. Their conversation about art, and a fluke encounter in Florence, set him on a course to return to that city to live years later. His family and friends — including his former wife Peg, pub mates from home, daughter-in-all-but-blood Alys, and a chatty parrot — come and go, time passes, and love of all kinds (including love that’s lost forever) is celebrated. This book lifted my heart.