This portrayal of a marriage is art--tender, fraught, full of empathy and strangeness. Beautiful prose and an expert narrator guides and manipulates how we understand Mathilde and Lotto, and ultimately, how we can never know one another fully. Truly one of my favorite books.

One of my favorite books of all time. If you're looking for a novel that weaves disparate storylines together in surprising, comedic, and tenderhearted ways, read this! Litfic prose with the pacing of a mystery/thriller. It truly speaks to the empathy and skill of McBride that he can embody each of the different characters so convincingly. Also love that it's spotlighting an often overlooked community.

This book has everything I love--mystery, art, history, culture...a bumbling professor type. It kicked off my Dan Brown phase.