Life After Loss

The theme of life after loss is central to the novel, explored mainly through the characters of Phoebe and Gary. Both are negotiating the aftermath of seismic personal ruptures: Phoebe through her divorce and subsequent suicide attempt, and Gary through the death of his wife Wendy. Their encounters over the course of the novel take place in a liminal space, suspended from their previous lives but not yet integrated into a new one. The Cornwall Inn, and the wedding it hosts, becomes the unlikely backdrop for their tentative exploration of what it means to live again when the life you expected has already ended.

For Phoebe, everything that follows her suicide attempt exists in a kind of narrative afterlife. Her arrival at the hotel is framed by a sense of finality: she has walked away from her job, disconnected from her past, and intends...