by Emma Cline
First published 2026
David sits in his private plane somewhere over Greenland, playing solitaire while his assistant Cody sleeps nearby. The retired executive carries a notebook filled with his own handwriting that he can no longer recognize. His mind struggles to hold onto the present as he travels toward his final destination in Zurich. The journey includes stops in London and dinner with his adult daughter, plus a meeting in France with a friend he has not seen for decades. As David moves through airports and hotel rooms, his grip on current reality weakens. Childhood memories surface: Sunday roasts, church clothes, a summer spent at a school friend's house. The failures and wrong turns of his life replay as his mental faculties deteriorate. His assistant guides him through each step of what David understands will be his last trip. The closer he gets to Zurich, the more his constructed identity falls apart, leaving him with only fragments of who he once was.
Genres: literary-fiction, contemporary, adult-fiction, 21st-century
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: unreliable-narrator
Setting: Greenland, London, Zurich
Period: Present Day
352 pages · Hardcover · Random House
Content warnings: mental-illness