The Man

Sims (How Can I Help You) delivers a devilish psychological thriller set in the 1960s and centered on empty-nester Judith Stanley, who’s taking a photography class with professor Paul Sorenson. The novel’s first half is narrated by Judith. At a neighbor’s party, she walks in on what appears to be a rape and flees. The experience triggers her memories of being assaulted as a teen, disbelieved by friends, and blamed by her unfeeling grandmother. Judith’s rapist was never caught, and in the days after her neighbor’s party, she keeps seeing him as a blurry figure in the margins of her photographs. A series of eerie events follow, including some that would spoil the novel to reveal here. Part two is narrated by Sorenson, who submits Judith’s photographs to Harper’s, which publishes them. As Judith’s fame rises, Paul receives hate mail disparaging him for thrusting her work into the spotlight. Both Judith and Paul grapple with their own duality: she is at once a meek housewife and an innovative photographer; he’s a talented teacher and an egotist repressing dark impulses. Sims artfully handles their parallel paranoias, and the novel’s unsettling ending boldly denies readers the comfort of certainty. The result is an appealingly disturbing tale that will linger in readers’ minds. Agent: Chris Clemans, Janklow & Nesbit Assoc. (July)