Kingfisher

This is a well written novel. Full of fragmented vignettes about grief and desire. She has a fresh voice and is perceptive. I think it is interesting how many of the protagonists are sick or dying, and how that impacts the caregivers and those that remain. As the book winds down, the reader is offered new information that has the potential to reassess what has transpired.

A creative writing professor who is unnamed throughout the novel , is in a long term relationship with a man named Michael. Our narrator becomes infatuated with a female colleague, a poet, known only to us as " Kingfisher". He seeks to p. 1 " fuck her." Soon he and his long term partner are in a polyamourous relationship.He becomes very focused on the the Kingfisher and his relationship with Michael falters.

We read of his difficult childhood, that still troubles him. When two of the characters become very ill, life becomes very challenging for him

There were moments when I felt for the narrator, but his fixation on sex and he himself were offputting .

Good reading about a man's relationships and in particular one relationship with a creative woman who has breast cancer