In the Round
Description
A woman is consumed by the belief her life has become a play. Lively, moving, and at moments astonishing, Rebecca Handler's Kafkaesque literary mystery is either a reflection on middle aged malaise or the cover-up for a murderous plot. Or maybe it's a theatrical production.
We meet In the Round's unnamed protagonist a few minutes after she's become convinced she's a victim of a home invasion. Nothing is missing from her family's San Francisco home, but everything feels wrong. Certain a burglar was there recently, the woman lurks about her own house during a sleepless night of questioning. Have you ever been sure that someone is watching you? Does a lifetime of putting others first lead to permanent paranoia? As a once in a lifetime pandemic wanes, have we all built versions of ourselves we're performing for an unseen audience? In the depths of one strange night in her living room, she seeks answers from her teenage son and her troubled neighbor. She dances to 90s music and buys herself underwear online. And she wonders: Will she be able to solve the mystery of her own purpose so she can save herself?
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Person
Rebecca Handler's debut novel, Edie Richter is Not Alone, received a Kirkus Starred Review and was longlisted for the Center for Fiction First Novel Prize. Her short stories have been published and awarded in several anthologies. Rebecca first conceived the idea for In the Round in 2021 while undergoing treatment for breast cancer. During long hours at the UCSF infusion center, often in a semi-hallucinatory state, the story began to take shape. A MacDowell fellow, Rebecca lives in San Francisco with her husband and, when they're not off pursuing their own adventures, their two daughters.