This engrossing novel from Jessica Soffer is set in New York and features several interlude chapters in which she casts an eye over Central Park, giving us little pen portraits of its sundry couples. The novel begins: “Some people come to the Park because they want to fall in love for the first time, the twelfth time, the final time.” This has the effect of reminding us that world contains countless love stories even though her focus this time round is on just one, that of Abe and Jane, who are also in the park: “Abe and Jane come after chemo and because they never know when it might be the last time.” Jane is seriously unwell and the novel recounts the 50 years she has spent with Abe. Jane, we learn, is an artist, while Abe has taught literature while also becoming a successful novelist. It’s a relationship that hasn’t been plain sailing – infidelity bubbles to the fore – and when they have a son, Jane, in particular, finds life difficult. This is all presented in a fragmentary style, their relationship depicted through little snapshots. Towards the novel’s end we get this: “You remember so much of that. The stories that live only in us, within us, and how they die every day with us too.” “You remember” is a constant refrain running throughout the narrative, reminding us what a life, or a relationship, actually is: simply a series of memories. And they’re beautifully recounted here. RM

Published by Serpent's Tail