In this week's edition of Endnotes, we take a look at Marisa Kashino's debut novel Best Offer Wins, following a 30-something house hunter, who insinuates her way into the lives of a not-yet-listed house's departing owners to gain an advantage.
Here's how the book came together:
Marisa Kashino
“The seed was planted during the years I spent covering real estate as a reporter—including during the particularly unhinged housing market triggered by Covid. I’d never written fiction before, so I signed up for a novel-writing workshop to learn some basics. I was still an editor at the Washington Post at that point, so I worked on the manuscript almost entirely on weekends.”
Meredith Miller
“I have never felt more seen in a novel in recent memory. Margo is the kind of character I love to root for—unapologetically ambitious, morally dubious, but always compelling. Some might call her unlikable, but her relentless drive is so persuasive that any number of missteps become forgivable.”
Ethan Schlatter
“Best Offer Wins felt like it managed to synthesize all of those frustratingly vague wants that dot the bios of every editor and agent’s manuscript wish list. I think Meredith and I would fancy ourselves ‘involved’ agents in the editorial process, and there was honestly an embarrassing lack of work for us to do. We at least earned our commission by workshopping the ending.”
Ryan Doherty
“Marisa and I did some editing back and forth, further fleshing out some of Margo’s backstory and strengthening the motivation for some of the plot drivers in the later parts of the book, but what makes this book special—that winning voice—was there from the moment I read it on submission.”
Chloé Dorgan
“Color is essential to this cover: the intense saturation of red lures the viewer in, creating visual tension with the lighter violet. The black sans-serif type helps to ground this energy and position it within the mystery genre. The repeated house shapes mirror the main character’s spiraling obsession. The drips were a final touch, intentionally ambiguous, evoking both paint and blood. ”
