First published 2001
Martin Bauman stands at the crossroads of his writing career, manuscript in hand, weighing his next move. He has built his reputation on carefully crafted stories, but now faces a choice that will test everything he believes about art and honesty. His personal relationships grow tangled with his professional ambitions as he discovers that the stories we tell others pale beside the lies we tell ourselves. The people closest to Martin become characters in his mental narratives, their real selves obscured by his need to reshape reality into publishable fiction. As Martin pursues both literary success and romantic connection, he must confront the gap between the writer he wants to be and the person he actually is. The novel explores how creative ambition can corrupt authentic feeling, and whether it's possible to love truly when you're always turning life into material.
Genres: literary-fiction, american-fiction, 20th-century, contemporary, 21st-century, academic
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: unreliable-narrator
Paperback · Abacus