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Two men meet in an apartment in London. They are strangers to one another, and yet they look remarkably alike.
Lewis is grieving his dead wife; Korine is hiding from his very-much-alive one. Lewis never had children; Korine has just walked out on his. Lewis is a retired actor whose career never amounted to much beyond a bit part on a B-list sitcom; Korine has always dreamed of acting.
Slowly and then all at once, each begins to live on the other's behalf. As Korine answers a casting call under Lewis's name, Lewis finds himself playing father to the other man's son. Each day the strange ruse becomes truer and stranger, more entrenched. Plunged into an existential game of cat-and-mouse, pursuit and retreat, they find that acting might make it possible to, finally, live.
Isabel Waidner's As If is a wily, propulsive, and unusually wise novel about what happens when we fall out of our roles and attempt to make new ones: a tale of thwarted expectation, renewed ambition, and the possibility of escape. It is the story of two men, or maybe one: a love story and a ghost story both.
"This is a stunning book with much to say about how grief can alter our life (or lives). A towering achievement from one of contemporary literature's most original minds." ―Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
"A spectacular and surreal story of doppelgängers trading places in modern-day London ... Waidner's delightfully absurd story offers deep insights into the lengths people go to escape their lives. This tale of ambition, loss, and desire for purpose is one of a kind." ―Publishers Weekly (starred review)
"As If holds a multiplying and expanding universe, whose characters are both wonderfully strange and wickedly human. At once twisty and delicious, beautiful and imaginative, this is a book that will surprise you in the best way possible." ―Kristen Arnett, author of Stop Me If You've Heard This One
"An audacious and enchanting novel, As If explores life's alternatives―fantasies and nightmares, encounters dreaded and desired, opportunities lost and gained―in an ingenious setting. We enter its world of doubles and mirror images with a thrill and leave with a deeper understanding of our own naked hearts." ―Yiyun Li, author of Things in Nature Merely Grow
This information about As If was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Isabel Waidner is the author of Corey Fah Does Social Mobility, Sterling Karat Gold, We Are Made of Diamond Stuff, and Gaudy Bauble. They are the winner of the Goldsmiths Prize and cofounded the event series Queers Read This. They teach at Queen Mary University of London.
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