A Kirkus Prize-nominated literary novel exploring the fallout of marital and artistic betrayal.

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In Luna, Phoenix, Queen, each member of a married couple, both literature professors and writers, commits the worst of betrayals. Dava carries on a years-long affair with a colleague, right under her husband Barr’s nose. And in return, Barr steals Dava’s novel manuscript, which is a fictionalized story about her affair, and publishes it as his own.

What makes it even more interesting is that Dava has Alzheimer’s, so once Barr finds out about her affair and betrays her, her disease has progressed too far for her to be able to communicate with anyone.

The story is told through a multitude of voices – Barr, Dava’s lover Svetlana, their children, and Barr’s assistant Evie – as they circle around the truth, each coming to it from their own perspective. A burned rescue dog connects their stories and leads them to self-discovery.

The book is very well observed. I know a lot of reviewers say this but there’s really no other way to put it. The care that the author put into the details makes the characters all feel very real and human. They are each flawed in their own way, and Dava’s slow decline into confusion is heartbreaking.

Luna, Phoenix, Queen has all the makings of a perfect book for me: emotional literary fiction about relationships, memory, and storytelling. But other than hating Barr, I didn’t feel a strong emotional connection to any of the characters, so I didn’t love it as much as I was hoping to.

Thank you to Knopf and NetGalley for the ARC. All opinions are my own.