The End of Romance

Critic and translator Meyer’s sharp and sexy sophomore novel (after Short War) chronicles a young woman’s liberation from an abusive marriage. As a girl, Sylvie Broder felt free around her grandparents, Holocaust survivors who embraced lives of joy in Miami. Both grandparents die during Sylvie’s teen years, in the wake of which she is drawn into a punishing relationship with the emotionally abusive man she winds up marrying. After she finally escapes from the marriage, she embarks on a PhD program in philosophy, building academic friendships and developing a worldview that revolves around the eradication of romantic love. As a student, her “question was much simpler” than those of her theory-driven cohort—“She wanted to know how a straight woman could be free.” It’s a nice idea, until Sylvie finds herself falling in love again, with not just one man but two: the sweet, sensitive, and stalwart Robbie Klein, and the boisterous, self-assured Abie Abraham. Meyer’s writing is propulsive, and Sylvie makes for a believably complicated protagonist as she puts Robbie and Abie through the ringer while exploring her thesis and trying to recover from her marriage. This thought-provoking novel pulls off big ideas and steamy romance all at once. (Feb.)