First published 2019
Alice works as a young editor in New York when she enters into an unexpected romance with Ezra Blazer, a celebrated writer decades her senior. Their relationship unfolds against the backdrop of the early Iraq War, revealing the power imbalances that shape their connection. Alice navigates the complexities of dating someone with vastly more fame, wealth, and experience while harboring her own literary ambitions. Meanwhile, Amar, an Iraqi-American man, finds himself detained by immigration officers at Heathrow Airport during the final weekend of 2008. He was traveling to visit his brother in Kurdistan when authorities pulled him aside, leaving him stranded in a holding room. These two separate narratives eventually converge in unexpected ways, illuminating how geography, power, and circumstance create the asymmetries that define human relationships. The novel examines how love and luck intersect with larger questions about art and life.
Genres: literary-fiction, contemporary, 21st-century, contemporary-romance
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: enemies-to-lovers, power-imbalance, unreliable-narrator
Setting: New York, Iraq, Kurdistan, Heathrow Airport
Period: Early Iraq War, 2008
500 pages · Hardcover · Wheeler Publishing Large Print