Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, September 7, 2021

Format: Hardcover

Pages: 356

Rating: 5/5 stars

Summary (From Goodreads):

Alice, a novelist, meets Felix, who works in a warehouse, and asks him if he’d like to travel to Rome with her. In Dublin, her best friend, Eileen, is getting over a break-up and slips back into flirting with Simon, a man she has known since childhood. Alice, Felix, Eileen, and Simon are still young—but life is catching up with them. They desire each other, they delude each other, they get together, they break apart. They have sex, they worry about sex, they worry about their friendships and the world they live in. Are they standing in the last lighted room before the darkness, bearing witness to something? Will they find a way to believe in a beautiful world?

My Review:

Read if you like: character driven stories, exploration of the meaning of life
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The book follows Alice and Eileen as they both try to figure out what they want out of life and as they navigate new relationships and old friendships.
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The author did a great job of developing Alice and Eileen as characters and I loved reading about their thoughts and experiences. Both are struggling to figure out what they want out of life and how to have healthy relationships. Their problems felt real and I definitely want to continue reading books by this author.