Erin is a homemaker who hasn’t read a book in a long time. But that changes when Wendell—now a published author—returns after twelve years. Once, they shared a creative partnership: he wrote, she took notes, their closeness defined by the things they never said. But when Erin begins to read his novel—about a professor and his amanuensis—she sees shadows of herself on the page. The more she reads, the more the boundaries between fact and fiction blur. Conversations restart, old wounds reopen and the past reshapes the present in quiet, irreversible ways.

After twelve years abroad, acclaimed novelist Wendell An Ling returns home and reconnects with Erin, once his devoted amanuensis, now married, who has abandoned reading. Their reunion stirs memories of a creative partnership fraught with unspoken tensions, mirrored in Wendell’s latest novel about a professor and his note-taker. As Wendell and Erin navigate their tangled history, the lines between past and fiction blur, revealing a layered exploration of love, power and the fragile boundaries between life and literature.

About the Author

Carissa Foo is a writer and literary critic. She writes scholarly articles and fiction. She is the author of If It Were Up to Mrs Dada (2018) and What We Learned from Driving in Winter (2022).