The White Octopus Hotel

Bell (The Winter Garden) sets this beautiful and bittersweet time travel fantasy at a magical hotel deep in the Swiss Alps. In 2016, Eve Shaw, a London art appraiser, wrestles with guilt and grief, believing she was responsible for her little sister’s death years earlier. She’s haunted by both a spectral white rabbit that follows her around and the tattoo of a white octopus that moves around her body, and her only comfort is the beautiful music of her favorite 20th-century composer, Max Everly. When a strangely familiar elderly visitor arrives at her office, hands Eve an octopus figurine, and promptly drops dead, the bizarre encounter leads Eve to the eponymous luxury hotel, where, she soon learns, each room leads to a different era. From there, the narrative shifts continuously from 2016 to 1917 and 1935, chronicling Eve’s love story with a younger iteration of the mysterious stranger, who turns out to be Max. As she helps him heal from the horrors of his time in the WWI trenches, she hopes to find a way to keep them together despite their different timelines. The convincing, emotional love story, lavish settings, and a wealth of spooky side characters make this sing. It’s a gem. (Oct.)