Two people meet for lunch at a Manhattan restaurant. She is an established actress, busy rehearsing for a new play. He is an attractive, restless young man, so much younger he could be her son. The meeting is tense, ambiguous: Xavier claims to be the son she abandoned years before. But the truth is more nuanced—a past interview distorted the woman’s words, confusing abortion and adoption, and the young man clings to this distorted version of events. When Xavier enters the protagonist’s life, however, the fragile balance of her marriage to Tomas begins to crumble. The novel opens in the second part in an alternate reality: Xavier becomes the rediscovered son, who returns to live in the family home, altering certain balances and becoming a source of constant surprises.
Katie Kitamura crafts a superb novel, a refined psychological and family drama, capable of examining the identities we construct and the roles we play in everyday life. But who is this woman? And who is this boy for her? These questions give rise to two different narratives, capable of rewriting the way we understand the roles we play every day—partner, parent, creator, muse—and the truths that each representation masks, especially in the eyes of those who think they truly know us.