Bitter Water Opera

A woman adrift is visited by the spirit of a reclusive dancer in this enchanting debut novel from Polek (after the collection Imaginary Museums). Gia, fresh from a breakup and on leave from her job at a college film department, writes a letter to the late Marta Becket after stumbling upon photos of her in a library archive. In response, Marta, who painted and performed mostly in solitude in an abandoned opera house, mysteriously appears at Gia’s house. Together, the two attend a ballet, visit the estate of a local painter, and watch The Red Shoes. After Marta paints herself into a mural in Gia’s garage, she disappears, and Gia moves on to a stint tending to a former professor’s cottage. Strange things occur on the grounds: Gia encounters a dead deer in the pond, and, while walking in a field, she feels crushed by a large, shapeless darkness. Later, while visiting Marta’s opera house in Amargosa, Calif., Gia has a profound spiritual experience during a drive through Death Valley and feels “God’s touch.” Polek writes with an enjoyably strange spareness and the descriptions are often pleasantly odd: “Marta made me spaghetti for lunch. I curtsied before she sat down. She didn’t notice.” Readers will be eager to see where Polek goes next. Agent: Alex Reubert, Sanford J. Greenburger Assoc. (Apr.)