by Robert Stone
First published 1999
Gordon's wife has left him, and he finds himself fixated on Lu Anne, a woman from his past. When Lu Anne travels to Mexico to act in a film based on Gordon's screenplay, he decides to follow her there. Gordon believes Lu Anne represents the love he desperately craves, but he fails to recognize that she is struggling with her own demons and barely keeping herself together. His pursuit becomes increasingly obsessive as he refuses to see the damage his presence might cause. Lu Anne is already fighting her own battle for survival, and Gordon's relentless need threatens to become the final pressure that destroys her completely. The story unfolds against the backdrop of a movie production in Mexico, where both characters confront their deepest vulnerabilities and the destructive power of desperate love.
Genres: fiction, drama, romance, literary-fiction, suspense, contemporary
Vibes: dark, emotional, intimate, suspenseful
Tropes: enemies-to-lovers, unreliable-narrator
Setting: Mexico
Period: 20th-century
258 pages · Paperback · Picador
Content warnings: mental-illness