Landscapes

July 3, 2023
Lai debuts with an intelligent narrative of an archivist living and working in the English countryside in a near future wracked by climate change. Penelope is the archivist and librarian at Mornington Hall, where she’s lived for the past 22 years with the owner, Aidan, who’s also her partner, and with whom she plans to demolish the house and sell the property to raise funds for a house on wheels and other projects. Meanwhile, cities are covered by geodesic domes, and climate refugees from other countries surge at England’s borders (Mornington Hall hosts a small number of such “travellers”). In anticipation of a valedictory visit from Aidan’s brother, Julian, the house’s former owner and Penelope’s former boss, she struggles with her resurfacing memories of being sexually assaulted by Julian, and also recalls how she initially bonded with him over a shared love for the paintings of J.M.W. Turner, in which Penelope saw a particular darkness that also seemed to exist in Julian. The “false appeal” of this darkness, as Penelope terms it now, forms the novel’s emotional core. Alongside Penelope’s trauma, thoughtfully developed ekphrases show how violence against women has not only been banalized, but positively coded in the tradition of Western painting. The text is an elegant assembly of such descriptions, along with catalogue entries, excerpts from Penelope’s journal, and sections written from Julian’s perspective. Sebald fans should take note. Agent: Stephanie Sinclair, CookeMcDermid Agency.

July 15, 2023
While living in a world on the brink of environmental collapse, a young woman prepares for the return of a violent figure from her past. In a near-future England devastated by climate change, Penelope and her partner, Aidan, have converted a massive, crumbling country house into a residence for climate migrants. Penelope was once an aspiring art historian, but living through the rise of homelessness, hunger, and political instability has made her academic ambitions appear untenable: "Ideas and theories could no longer hold together the disparate parts of the world." Now, she spends her days preparing meals for residents and venturing into the derelict city center for supplies. But as repairs pile up and resources grow scarce, Penelope and Aidan are forced to sell the estate and its remaining valuable objects. As part of the sale, the couple decides to invite Aidan's fierce, detached brother, Julian, to see the house he grew up in one final time. As Julian's arrival grows near, Penelope is roiled by harrowing memories of their brief romance---and one unforgettable, terrible night. She can't sleep, kept awake by nightmares in which ravenous termites destroy her home. By day, Penelope throws herself into her archival work, preparing the house for sale by cataloging its contents--pictures, postcards, novels, albums of stamps and flowers--descriptions of which are interwoven throughout the text. Shifting between Penelope's diary entries and an omniscient description of Julian's passage to England by train, the novel builds an electric undercurrent of doom. Despite an unflappable, subdued narrative tone, there's legitimate suspense as Julian nears Penelope's home. In cool, sinewy prose, this astute and timely novel explores the roles of beauty, art, and passion in a time of survival.

COPYRIGHT(2023) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

August 1, 2023
Mornington Hall will be destroyed in a matter of months. The estate is already falling to pieces, ravaged by the severe climate in an unsettlingly possible future where rain no longer falls in England. Penelope, who first came to the estate as a research fellow decades ago, serves as an archivist. She is particularly interested in the darkness present in the works of the artist William Turner. Penelope spends her days labeling ephemera from a world that seems long gone as travelers and climate refugees pass through, the gritty work of survival an ever-present drumbeat in the background. Her partner, Aidan, has invited his brother Julian to come and see their childhood home one more time, but Julian's return dredges up traumatic memories for Penelope. This elegiac debut is at once a disturbing glimpse into the ravages of a climate-wrecked world and a cutting examination of violence against women in art, demanding we consider the long-lasting consequences of our actions and testifying to the slow, painful work of living after trauma.

COPYRIGHT(2023) Booklist, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.