But (surprise!) Wyn is there too, and he and Harriet have to share a (very romantic) room and a bed. She’s ready for a vacation at her happy place-the Maine cottage she and her friends visit every summer. So they keep it a secret from their friends and families-in fact, Harriet barely even admits it to herself, focusing instead on her grueling hours as a surgical resident. They’ve been part of the same boisterous friend group since college, and they know that their breakup will devastate the others and make things more than a little awkward. Wyn Connor and Harriet Kilpatrick were the perfect couple-until Wyn dumped Harriet for reasons she still doesn’t fully understand. Her elegantly simple writing allows her ideas and musings to shine.Įxes pretend they’re still together for the sake of their friends on their annual summer vacation. But I didn’t trust anyone.The richer I got, the harder it would be for anyone to force me to do anything.” Dolan’s preoccupation with power is often couched in humor but always expertly observed. After confiding that she called her college savings account her “abortion fund,” she says: “I knew some women who saved with their friends, and they all helped whoever was unlucky. Politics, class, and race anxiously hover over the entire novel.

Ava-who has struggled throughout the novel to be vulnerable in often maddening ways-must make a decision: live comfortably or live truthfully. I could see it forever, for us: walking through cities, laughing at things that weren’t that funny.” When Julian tells her he’s returning to Hong Kong, she must navigate the precarious situation she’s inadvertently created. During an evening stroll, she thinks: “I didn't need to know how other women went about being together. Telling neither the full truth about the other, Ava finds herself falling in love with Edith.

With Ava still living in Julian’s apartment, she and Edith fall into a quick friendship that evolves into a relationship. When Julian leaves for London on an extended work project, Ava meets Edith, a Hong Kong local and ambitious lawyer. As they fall into a quasi-relationship, Ava moves into his apartment, where Julian allows her to live rent-free. In her first months as an expat, she meets Julian-a 28-year-old English banker-who seems aloof about everything except his job. Noting that the school hires only white people, she remarks: “Like sharks’ teeth, teachers dropped out and were replaced.” From the jump, Ava approaches the world with cleareyed humor.

In Irish author Dolan's debut novel, 22-year-old narrator Ava relocates from Dublin to Hong Kong to teach grammar at a school for English-language learners. A young millennial finds herself in a love triangle with a man and woman.

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