Estate

The elegant latest from Zarn offers a new and seemingly autofictional version of the love story central to her previous novel, Inverno. Caroline, the narrator, has recently separated from her husband, Daniel, in New York City, and fallen inconveniently in love with her longtime friend Lorenzo, an Italian who himself is involved with two other women. Zarin reflects Caroline’s head-spinning emotional state in the novel’s form, a choppy series of digressions and vignettes, most of which are addressed to Lorenzo. Among Caroline’s preoccupations are her interest in the nature of disappearance, and she muses on the story of Michael Rockefeller, the 23-year-old son of Nelson Rockefeller who vanished in New Guinea in 1961 when his father was governor of New York. Caroline’s preteen daughter, Pom, her youngest, appears repeatedly, while other minor characters float through the novel, including her three older children, as Caroline ricochets around Manhattan and reflects on trips to Europe, literature, art, her years with Daniel, and other lovers. The fleeting and kaleidoscopic images don’t all cohere into a narrative, but Zarin’s lucid writing impresses, especially when the author has Caroline taking stock of her situation, describing herself as a “woman who cannot love anyone unless she is backing herself into an abyss.” This slim tale gives readers plenty to chew on. Agent: Sarah Chalfant, Wylie Agency. (Nov.)