Claire

Claire is the first person narrator and main character of the novel. At the novel's start, Claire has recently given birth to a baby girl named Ruth. Though she thought she was ready to have a child in the months prior, Claire's struggle with postpartum depression complicates her ability to care for Ruth and engage with her home life. She tries to be good to the baby, but feels detached from her. These feelings effectively trouble her marriage with Theo.

Motherhood also impacts Claire's career as a writer and a writing professor. She starts disbelieving in the power of story and narrative to deliver the individual from all sorts of troubles. She stops writing altogether. Though she continues teaching, she does not trust the things she tells her students.

Then Claire takes a trip to Reno, Nevada for a reading. While there, she spends time with three of...