Weather: A Novel

"Just out, and another one not to miss, is Jenny Offill’s Weather , her third novel and the follow-up to her wry, intelligent and heart-rending examination of marital infidelity, art and motherhood Dept. of Speculation , which cannot be recommended highly enough. As with Dept. of Speculation , Weather is built from fragments, some koan-esque and oblique, some directly reported, which Offill reportedly composes, pins to notice boards around her house, and sifts through for many months before settling upon the final formation. The new novel examines how to live and love in the shadow of climate collapse ."

"I love this book. When I first read it, I said, ‘everyone has to read this book.’ It’s very gentle. It’s not hilarious. If Rules for Visiting is a situation comedy of what happens when someone tries to rekindle old friendships, this is much more about somebody trying to deal with ‘the big questions’. Lizzie Benson (our main character) gets a job working for her old mentor who’s become some kind of guru. The way she observes the hypocrisy within that community, without sneering at them—I think that’s really special, actually. She allows us to question our arrogance and hypocrisy when discussing how the world needs to change without saying, ‘You’re wrong to have gone there.’ Then Lizzie’s trying to just keep her house together. That book, for me, really is the lockdown paradox. A lot of the humour, I think comes from seeing ourselves reflected back."