Elle, a 50 year old married mother of two, slides into an easy dalliance with a partner of tangled history that reaches back to the burgeoning ecology of the summer cottages at which the indiscretion takes place. The event spirals Elle into a confluence of memory as she struggles to make sense of her choice, and what it means for everyone going forward.

We jump back and forth in time; as far back as Elle’s childhood and coming-of-age. It’s Jonah’s history we are seeing too. Not rendered and framed quite so vividly as Elle, as we stick with her as the sole perspective, but all the same, what occurs in the present seems inevitable and irrevocable.

Craft-wise, this book is brilliant in its specificity, diction, and plot beats within scenes, other books feels like an old Polaroid still being developed, shaken impatiently, whereas this emerges seemingly fully formed, ostensibly without effort. The interactions between people, especially the body language is sometimes so detailed in its choreography that the memory becomes a truism. The dialogue is biting and meaningful, often serving as a coda to the nature of people being expressed already. The effect is staggering and unique.

It also made me think a lot about Donna Tartt’s books. Where a secret often defines a person. Maps out their life so completely, the rest feels like fate. The cruelty experienced by other people, and how it’s internalized, ultimately, and unfortunately, is most often the one true thing that changes them. Peripheral decisions are often a desperate attempt at staving off inner nature, and tend to fade. It’s the secret inside that maneuvers our thoughts and actions. But we struggle as best we can.

And so, as are all the best novels, I find, they become, in their specificity, about everyone. Imminently relatable, compelling, and beautiful, this one is shelved in my all time favourites.