"The cover of Lily King's new novel, Heart the Lover, features an abstracted face sobbing white tears on a tangerine background. It is an appropriate image, given that so many early readers from BookTokkers to fellow authors have reported weeping uncontrollably during the book's final third. For King, the reaction was unexpected. I certainly felt a lot of emotion while I was writing. Not sobbing, more a deeper grief, she says."
"She was working on a political murder mystery titled Mercury Island during the pandemic. I had about 90 pages, and I had run out of steam. I had a dead body on the first page, and I didn't care how he died, she laughs. Then her friend Ann Patchett sent her the manuscript of Tom Lake. I thought, Oh my God, she's having so much fun. And I am having so much fun reading this.'"
A narrative opens with a 1980s college love story then revisits the same characters in middle age, centering on a love-triangle dynamic that reflects periods of emotional drought and abundance. Early readers report uncontrollable sobbing during the final third, while the creator experienced deep grief yet described the process as joyful and relieving. The project originated when a political murder-mystery stalled during the pandemic and a contemporary work inspired a pivot to nostalgic college scenes. The narrative voice remains warm and big-hearted, portraying flawed characters with sympathy and inviting strong emotional engagement from readers.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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