Arnett initially explored these issues in her 2019 debut novel, “Mostly Dead Things.” In it, lonely, hardworking Jessa must ...

The novel of character would supplant the novel of incident in a few short weeks, and all the aspirants for literary honors would be engaged in endeavoring to imitate the master of the time.

As a character, she gives Li a chance to explore the strange power of the myths we form about the people who shape us. Yet what really lies in Agnès’s own heart, and the novel’s, is only ...