Untitled novella (magic realism, science and literary fiction), in progress
Two childhood friends reconnect for twenty-four hours. After years of radio silence, they walk and talk for miles on end. It’s an overnight rush. A supernatural slumber party. Of course one is a human, and the other is a moth. They might just complete an exorcism, find Amelia Earhart, solve a murder, and save their hometown—whatever it takes to be friends again. It’s set in Boston.
What does the book believe in? A spirit of place. That there are more stories to be told… beyond those set squarely in the media powerhouses of NYC and LA, in the uninspired critiques of suburbia, and in the declension narrative of gentrification. It considers the seemingly inevitable way that time transforms the world. Until it is unrecognizable to those who have endured it.
In the end, the friends question what it means to borrow a life. Finding your place is important. Why does it feel like for half our lives we search for this feeling, and by the end long to see it how it was before? But the coming of ages can’t be stopped; it’ll come and go just the same.
The neighborhood is always changing.
Comparable titles
- Gone Like Yesterday by Janelle Williams uses the symbolic power of the ‘gypsy’ moth to give voice to society’s discarded.
- A Tale for the Time Being by Ruth Ozeki employs a Buddhist treatment of time as collapsible, cyclical, absent.
- The Book of Goose by Yiyun Li and The Myth of You and Me by Leah Stewart paint a fragile portrait of a first true friendship.