the woman in the library a novel sulari gentill

Further, while Hannah is stuck in pandemic lockdown in Australia, she’s in direct correspondence with a Bostonian fan, Leo, who’s more than happy to help research her setting. Trouble is, one of them is a murderer.Īs the story builds, we’re made aware that Freddie’s tale is actually a fiction created by the renowned Australian author Hannah Tigone. As the foursome begin to build stronger relationships based on their initial rapport, they’re each excited to have found genuine new friends. Finally, Handsome Man is Cain, who is also a writer researching his next novel, depicting the life and death of a homeless man surviving on the cold Boston streets. Whit is doing his best to flunk out of Harvard Law so that he won’t have to follow in his parents’ footsteps and join their law firm. Outside of Freddie’s head, Freud Girl is actually Marigold, a heavily tattooed psychology grad student who seems to be developing a crush on Heroic Chin, or Whit as he’s more commonly known.

The scream becomes a motif, an echo of each character’s silent cry for connection and friendship, for help.

The library takes on a consciousness of its own, watchful, patient, dangerous. The narrative is strange–unlike anything I’ve written before. Perhaps it’s because I am not yet ready to diverge them from their inspiration, to stem that momentum of discovery, the excitement of new friendship that seems to form a story of itself. I’ve not yet found actual names for Handsome Man, Heroic Chin, and Freud Girl, but it doesn’t seem to matter. The story is still coming in waves, surging ideas crashing onto the page faster than I can type. Forced to stay put while the authorities search the building, Freddie and three others strike up a friendship that inspires Freddie to finally start writing her book: She’s idly glancing over her fellow Reading Room occupants and giving them nicknames in her head when a scream rends the air. Our narrator, Freddie, is an Australian author who’s received a fellowship to research her next novel in the United States.

The book’s core is the story of four people brought together by a hair-raising scream while they’re all seated in the Reading Room of the Boston Public Library.

What a delightfully meta-textual examination of writing in the 21st century! With The Woman In The Library, Sulari Gentill has written a truly thought-provoking modern crime fiction novel-one that entertains and enthralls at a high level while still keeping at least one foot grounded in reality.

The woman in the library a novel sulari gentill