Permanence

An adulterous couple wakes up one morning in a strange new land with the freedom to enjoy their illicit relationship in Mackintosh’s ethereal latest (after Cursed Bread). Clara, a young and spirited gallery receptionist, has been dating Francis, a married art history professor and father, for a year, but she never spent the night with him until now. They wake up to find themselves in an apartment stocked with their favorite books and clothes, surrounded by a city filled with golden light, music, and other happy cheating couples. They begin to settle into what they call “the city of impermanence,” until they have a fight, triggered by Clara’s sadness over not having Francis to herself if they return to the real world, and exacerbated by Francis’s confession that he hopes to go back. Mackintosh invests more effort in exploring the characters than developing the speculative conceit. As a result, the novel feels more like a situation than a story, which might frustrate some readers. Still, she writes with delicate precision about Clara’s yearning (“In the city there was time for all of this, and more. Time for the ordinary, to which we normally give little value”). It’s a dreamy meditation on the power of love. Agent: Gráinne Fox, UTA. (Apr.)