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Last Night in Montreal
"No one stays forever." So begins Mandel's debut, and, as it happens, the last book of her body of work that I've completed. The story begins with Lilia walking out of the Brooklyn apartment she shares with her boyfriend Eli to get a paper (she says), but she never comes back. He is stunned by her disappearance, though perhaps he shouldn't be, as he's known she's never stayed in one place for very long. She has her reasons, which we will soon learn through a multitude of voices: Eli as he tries to track her down, the private investigator who's been tracking her for decades, the PI's daughter as she shares her own perspective, Lilia herself reflects on the lure of staying put vs the unavoidable urge to move on. It was remarkable to me to see the many similarities this crime debut had to Mandel's later and decidedly more speculative works.
About the Book
Publisher’s description:
When Lilia Albert was a child, her father appeared on the doorstep of her mother’s house and took her away. Now, haunted by an inability to remember much about her early childhood, Lilia moves restlessly from city to city, abandoning lovers and eluding the private detective who has dedicated a career to following close behind.
Then comes Eli. When Lilia goes out for a paper and fails to return to their Brooklyn apartment, he follows her to Montreal, not knowing whether he wants to disappear, too, or help her find her way home. But what he discovers is a deeper mystery, one that will set past and present spinning toward collision.
Other books in the "Completist Author: Emily St John Mandel"
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