by Kate Walbert
First published 2015
Marie and Simone sit in a dusty art studio in Chelsea, paintbrushes in hand, decades of friendship between them. Both women survived World War II in Europe before making new lives in Manhattan. Now widows, they remain active and curious, though memories from their past surface unexpectedly. Their art instructor Sid Morris runs classes in a tenement building marked for condo conversion. Both women find themselves drawn to him. Helen, an art historian, joins their painting group. Meanwhile, Elizabeth rents the apartment above Marie. She watches her teenage son and husband with growing confusion, convinced that everyone else possesses some secret knowledge about how to live with confidence. She feels increasingly lost in her own life. The neighborhood around them shifts rapidly. Extreme weather disrupts the city. Each character struggles with the gap between their outer actions and inner uncertainties. Through multiple perspectives and detailed footnotes, the novel examines how these lives intersect. It explores marriage, friendship, and various forms of love while focusing on the private thoughts and feelings that drive each person.
Genres: art, family-life, friendship, 20th-century, contemporary, 21st-century
Vibes: atmospheric, emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: found-family, unreliable-narrator
Setting: Chelsea, Manhattan, New York
Period: World War II
212 pages · Hardcover · Scribner