First published 2024
Oscar spends his forties ranting on social media, a former alcoholic and cocaine addict turned B-list novelist who insults people online for sport. When he mocks actress Rebecca's appearance on Instagram, she fires back with a furious email that compares him to a pigeon defecating on her shoulder. Their angry exchange sparks an unlikely correspondence that grows into friendship, even as Oscar faces sexual harassment accusations from his former publicist. Through their brutal back-and-forth messages, Rebecca and Oscar dissect life under patriarchy and confess their various addictions to drugs, alcohol, internet rage, and the desperate search for feeling anything at all. Set against a Paris where excess once reigned supreme, their conversation becomes a raw examination of how modern culture damages both men and women, leaving them sick and craving whatever might make them feel alive.
Genres: fiction, addiction, contemporary, 21st-century
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: enemies-to-lovers, found-family
Setting: Paris
Period: 21st-century
304 pages · Hardcover · Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Content warnings: addiction, drug-use, sexual-content