Waiting on a Friend

A young queer woman harnesses her ability to see dead people during the AIDS epidemic in Adler’s powerhouse debut. Set in mid-1980s New York City, the story follows Renata, a lesbian retail worker who has watched her friends suffer and die from the mysterious and ruthless illness. She’s just lost her best friend and longtime roommate, Mark, at 29, and refuses to rest until she “sees” him again. But it’s been three months and Mark still hasn’t materialized, as so many other ghosts have, including Francois, a friend of Mark’s who appears on Renata’s fire escape screaming in pain, and Mrs. Velez, a neighbor who died in the apartment below hers. Emotionally drained from the ghosts’ appearances, Renata turns to a Ghostbusters-type group called Manhattan Remediation that uses “evidence-based” electromagnetic field technology to “sanitize” Manhattan from the restless spirits haunting the living. It turns out the group has nefarious political motivations in line with the Reagan administration’s cruel denial of the existence of AIDS. Renata, her girlfriend Claude, and their friends set out to stop Manhattan Remediation, hoping to protect the legacy of AIDS victims from being vanquished in the name of misguided moral purity. Adler’s intimate portrayal of the period is richly detailed, both in the grim atmosphere and the city’s life-affirming downtown arts community. This dazzles like a mirror ball. Agent: Julie Barer, Book Group. (May)