This book was on the Backlisted podcast – well, Transit was, and I thought I should start with the first one. I listened to this and it was narrated by Kristin Scott Thomas (fabulous).
Here’s the blurb …
Outline is a novel in ten conversations. Spare and lucid, it follows a novelist teaching a course in creative writing over an oppressively hot summer in Athens. She leads her student in storytelling exercises. She meets other writers for dinner. She goes swimming in the Ionian Sea with her seatmate from the place. The people she encounters speak volubly about themselves, their fantasies, anxieties, pet theories, regrets, and longings. And through these disclosures, a portrait of the narrator is drawn by contrast, a portrait of a woman learning to face great a great loss.
This was great, I have been raving about it to all of my reading friends. It feels like a friend (a very articulate friend) telling stories about their encounters. And through the various stories, we gain an idea of our narrator. The writing is beautiful (I am awed by her talent and intelligence).
A review.