num_pages: 336
description: A wry and bold debut novel which is at once an irresistible catastrophe waiting to happen and an unflinching exploration of how we narrate the stories of our lives as an aspiring novelist finds herself stalkingand writing abouther boyfriends ex-girlfriend.I cant help but compare our worth as writers as lovers as women. Is anything solely mine or will I always dwell in someone elses shadow? Twenty-four-year-old bookseller and New Yorker Naomi Ackerman desperate to write a novel struggles to find the right story to tell. When after years of disastrous Tinder dates she meets Caleba perfectly nice guy with a Welsh accent and a unique patience for all of her quirksshe feels she's finally stumbled onto a time-honored subject: love. But then Caleb's ex-girlfriend Rosemary enters the scene. When Naomi learns that Rosemary is not safely tucked away overseas as she'd assumed but in fact lives in New York and works in the literary world she is fundamentally threatened and intrigued in equal measure. On paper Rosemary sounds like a better version of Naomibut if they both fell for the same man they must have something more essential in common. Determined to figure out how their stories intertwine Naomi's casual Instagram stalking morphs into a full-blown friendship under false pretenses. She can't seem to get herself to quit Rosemary in whom she discovers an unexpected confidantand she can't stop writing about her either having now found a more interesting subject for her nascent novel. As her lies and half-truths spiral out of her control and fact and fiction become increasingly difficult to separate Naomi manipulates the most important people in her lifeher family her friends Caleb Rosemary and perhaps most devastatingly herselfin pursuit of her craft. Ultimately shes forced to decide who and what she's willing to sacrifice to write them all the perfect ending.
language: English
title: A Novel Obsession
publisher: Dutton