Luna, Phoenix, Queen

by Orringer, Julie · 2026

When literary scholars Dava and Barr Pennington arrive at a Midwestern university, their marriage is already frayed by secrets and unspoken desires. Dava, a fiction writer, is haunted by a clandestine love for her Russian studies colleague, Svetlana, while Barr, an English professor, wrestles with his own hidden past. As Dava pours her turmoil into a novel about two women running a domestic‑violence shelter in coastal Maine, her memory begins to betray her—early‑onset Alzheimer’s steals the very stories she strives to tell. Forced into a memory‑care facility, she must confront the erosion of self while the manuscript she’s crafting becomes a lifeline for both her and the women she writes about. Julie Orringer weaves a spellbinding tale of infidelity, the provenance of a literary masterpiece, and the transformative power of storytelling, delivering a heartbreaking, redemptive journey that reshapes identity and destiny.