Beings

Masad (All My Mother’s Lovers) spins an affecting tale of aliens, alienation, and archives. It’s anchored by the workday assignments and converging obsessions of an assistant at a library, known only as the Archivist, who begins reading a manuscript about real-life interracial couple Barney and Betty Hill. In 1961, the Hills claimed to be abducted by aliens in the New Hampshire woods upon returning from their honeymoon in Canada. The manuscript, held in the library’s Queer Writers Archive, embellishes the story of the media-shy couple, who gained notoriety among UFO followers. The Archivist also reads letters addressed by lesbian Phyllis Egerton, who left her homophobic mother in 1962 New Hampshire to start a new life as a proofreader at a Boston newspaper and aspired to become a science fiction author, to her estranged girlfriend. The material gives the Archivist solace as they deal with chronic pain from a genetic disorder and angst at a world that doesn’t always accommodate their gender nonconformity. Moreover, the story of the Hills reminds the Archivist, who also hails from New Hampshire, of their own close encounter with aliens as an elementary school student in 1996. The interconnected narratives reveal the power of stories and archival material to reach across time and help an isolated person find themselves. Readers will be swept away. (Sept.)