I read this because it was longlisted for the 2025 Booker Prize, and while it did not make it to the short list, a lot of the books that fall into that category are among my favorite nominees--this book was good, but will not make my top 5 of the nominees this year.
I read a review that I think nicely summarizes the course of events in this book, which is that it subtly blurs the distinction between help and harm.
Yes, that is the best of the messages to take home from this, that your intentions are not always the end result.
The protagonist is an Albanian woman married to a New Yorker who works as an interpreter--which is almost always a complex job as well as an emotional one. She has trouble creating and maintaining boundaries, both with her clients as well as in the world in general, and she is slowly but surely careening from one mishap to another, leaving the reader to worry about what will happen to her next--I listened to part of it and had to stop when she got herself into a dangerous situation, I just couldn't be driving and giving the story the attention it deserved. She is generous and good hearted but she also has blinders on when it comes to danger and she has trouble seeing beyond herself when she acts.
There are lots of subtexts here, about immigration, the lasting effects of trauma, and the limitations of what what dreams for and what is realistic.
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