Siri Hustvedt's foray into psychological thriller through Lily Dahl, a young woman awakening to life and sexuality while facing a disturbing mystery.
“A tense and compelling drama.” Sunday Times
“Full of humor, surprises, and powerful imagery... Yet Hustvedt’s true triumph is taking the ordinary and making it strange, while showing how all strangeness is rooted in the everyday.” Observer
The young Lily Dahl lives in Webster, Minnesota, in a room above the main street café where she works as a waitress and dreams of becoming an actress; there she serves breakfast to the troubled and dirty farmers Frank and Dick, whose father is rumored to have buried his wife Helen alive, as well as to another relative of the deceased, the eccentric loner Martin Petersen, a former childhood playmate of Lily’s. So when truly unsettling events begin to happen in town, suspects are not in short supply, including Ed Shapiro, the attractive outsider painter who works on his mysterious canvases at night and steals Lily’s heart.
The protagonist of this astonishing novel, on the brink of adulthood, ventures into that stage between erotic adventures, deep but unexpected friendships, and inexplicable acts of madness as she becomes a fearless detective. But Lily’s story is also the story of a small town, where people are bound by a powerful sense of belonging, both geographically and spiritually, and where gossip and secrets are as essential to the bond between its inhabitants as the borders that define it.
