O My Darling

A Novel

By: Amity Gaige

Narrated by: Julia Whelan

The external lives of Clark, a high school guidance counselor, and Charlotte, a bookkeeper, are utterly ordinary, but their interior lives are as bold and complex as abstract paintings colored by imagined possibilities, childhood joys and, more darkly, by deeply buried fears. When Clark rescues a young boy from drowning, a chain of events-some comic, some harrowing-is set in motion, revealing the fault lines of the couple's marriage and individual psyches.

Amity Gaige is a consummate stylist. Her every sentence contains a tiny world-marrying striking images to deep, soulful ideas in perfectly concise fashion.

Critic reviews

"Utterly devourable...gently, and beautifully unfolds, like a gauzy curtain in an open window."—Los Angeles Times

"A life-enhancing novel and a stunning debut...Gaige's style sings and twists. Each moment or shift in perspective conjures up a strange image, a quirky insight, a sumptuous simile...haunting, riveting, wonderful."—The Providence Journal

"Generous, wry, and bristling with humor, O MY DARLING is a gift to the reader. There are so many pleasures to be found here: indelible images, crystalline prose, and two characters that are rendered with such entertaining insight and tenderness, they will continue to haunt us long after we have, with great reluctance, left them."—Sarah Shun-Lien Bynum, finalist for the National Book Award for Madeline is Sleeping

"This fine, intelligent novel should be required reading for anyone who is (a) in love, (b) engaged, (c) wed, or (d) planning on buying real estate, especially as a concrete expression of (a), (b), or (c). With one scalpel-sharp sentence after another, Amity Gaige has cut a beautifully sad pattern into the skin of that rootless, troubled creature--the modern, secular marriage."—Adam Haslett, author of Union Atlantic, and the New York Times best-selling short story collection You Are Not a Stranger Here

"Amity Gaige seems to know everything there is to know about us. [The novel's] details are so sharp and unique, every sentence carries the burden (and somethings the joy also) of truth."—Peter Orner, author of Love and Shame and Love

"Gaige's beguilingly offbeat voices and appealing mix of humor and insight offer continual pleasures...With a flavor of Lorrie Moore, graceful, bright, modern writing."—Kirkus Reviews

"Crystalline insights into the nature of love and flashes of narrative brilliance...sparkles and delights."—Publisher's Weekly