Day

"How to write a novel about the pandemic without writing a pandemic novel? Michael Cunningham manages that feat with beauty, grace and lines that linger, like this from the book’s opening: “This early, the East River takes on a thin layer of translucence, a bright steely skin that appears to float over the river itself as the water turns from its nocturnal black to the opaque deep green of the approaching day.” The novel follows a Brooklyn family – already in something of a bubble, even before COVID-19 – across a single day, April 5, across three years, 2019, 2020 and 2021. There’s a passage toward the end about a little girl in a yellow dress – too small, a difficult color, those around her think – well, I won’t spoil it."