by Lily Tuck
First published 1991
A phone rings at midnight. One woman calls another to talk about their friend who has died. What begins as a conversation about death becomes something else entirely. The two middle-aged women stay on the line until dawn breaks, their voices carrying across the darkness. They speak about their mutual friend, but the real subject becomes their own lives. Each woman discovers how empty her days have become. The hours stretch between them, filled with admissions they never expected to make. The death of their friend forces them to examine what they have built and what they have lost. By morning, both women understand something new about the lives they have been living. The phone call ends, but the recognition of their emptiness remains.
Genres: fiction, literary-fiction, contemporary, 21st-century
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: character-study, intimate-conversation
148 pages · Hardcover · Knopf