Excerpt from Mona Acts Out by Mischa Berlinski, plus links to reviews, author biography & more

Sometimes the debate over Milton took place in the space of a single soul. Mona Zahid, for example, had a toe in both of the rival camps: when the company squabbled over his reputation, she was an out-and-out, unabashed Miltophile. Asked to quantify her debt to the man, she would have spread her arms wide and said, "Milton made me." But she was happier, she had discovered, with Milton out of her life. This made her feel treacherous, unsure of herself. She was not sure that she was a better actress without Milton (it wasn't a judgment for her to make) but she was certainly a freer, more spontaneous one. Milton had been for decades of her life a boarder in a psychic spare bedroom. Now that he was moved out, she enjoyed the extra space. Milton had opinions on everything. Not visiting him avoided the question, sneering, knowing, and judging all at once, "And how's it going with your doctor?" The doctor in question was Phil, and Milton had not approved of the marriage—and why should Milton even have had a vote? Still, for a long time, she had been planning to visit Milton, she sincerely had. Then she had felt guilty about not visiting him. Then she had justified her guilt—she wasn't Milton's daughter, after all—and then she had forgotten her guilt, and then more months had passed. It had been who-knows-how-long since she had visited Milton. Maybe even a year.

Excerpted from Mona Acts Out: A Novel by Mischa Berlinski. Copyright © 2025 by Mischa Berlinski. Used with permission of the publisher, Liveright Publishing Corporation, a division of W. W. Norton & Company, Inc. All rights reserved.