We Spread

We Spread

Iain Reid

Enjoyment: 4.5Quality: Characters: Plot:

A new work of philosophical suspense. Penny, an artist, has lived in the same apartment for decades, surrounded by the artifacts and keepsakes of her long life. She is resigned to the mundane rituals of old age, until things start to slip. Before her longtime partner passed away years earlier, provisions were made, unbeknownst to her, for a room in a unique long-term care residence, where Penny finds herself after one too many “incidents.” Initially, surrounded by peers, conversing, eating, sleeping, looking out at the beautiful woods that surround the house, all is well. She even begins to paint again. But as the days start to blur together, Penny—with a growing sense of unrest and distrust—starts to lose her grip on the passage of time and on her place in the world. Is she succumbing to the subtly destructive effects of aging, or is she an unknowing participant in something more unsettling? At once compassionate and uncanny, told in spare, hypnotic prose, Iain Reid’s genre-defying third novel explores questions of conformity, art, productivity, relationships, and what, ultimately, it means to grow old.


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  • fraggle
    Edited
    Favorite Quotes

    “That’s life. It’s the tragedy of life: the end comes for us all. People on the sidewalk pass me by, stepping around me, without eye contact or acknowledgment.” “I’ve been in my apartment for decades, and it only took a matter of days to get rid of me. Days.” “I want to remember how much fun we had in our apartment. I never thought about what he was going to be like in middle age, in late middle age, as an old man. I never thought about how his desires would wane over time while his traits and mannerisms would intensify. As passions decrease, character is revealed.” “I love the light at this time of the morning. It never lasts long.”

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  • Thoughts from 45%

    I haven’t been able to put this down yet, I really like the writing. I feel like this is going to hurt a lot… more than it already has

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