Thank you NetGalley and Viking for an Advanced Reader’s Copy of this book. This is the story of Ivan and Prue who have spent their lives studying linguistics and communication and unfortunately have seemed to miss the boat when it comes to themselves. Through the book their are scenarios they cannot seem to get themselves out of. I thought this book was good in some areas but to me it was a little lacking. I like to get immersed in the characters themselves and I never quite became invested.

A novel that I loved from the first pages the scene where Ivan picks up his fatherin law Frank,.Frank insists on coming to see his daughter Prue present an academic paper .This is not a normal father son in law trip Frank is bipolar & refuses to take his pills. There is something so charming about there interaction.
Ivan and Pru academics smart smart experts in Philosophy & bio linguistics but their marriage for two such intelligent people needs help.Lindsay Stern has the magic will be looking forward to her future novels.#netgalley #penguinviking

You would think college professors and experts on language would know how to communicate with one another- especially when they are married- but that's not the case here. How on earth did Ivan and Prue, with their deeply divergent interests, ever get together? More important is the question posed by Stern, is how do they stay- or should they stay- together. Ivan's a philosopher and Prue is into biolinguisitics. They are opposite in personality and in approach to life. Ivan's bi-polar father Frank is the catalyst to make Ivan think about how they've calcified. Thanks for the ARC of this very nice debut novel. This is for fans of literary fiction.

3.5 stars.

It's not often I want a book to be longer but this is one of the cases where I felt the author could have given us a bit more. This is a well-written novel about two professors who both study language from different perspectives (science vs philosophy) and their relationship and the lack of communication in it.

There is a lot in this small book: competition between spouses, complexities of academic life, misunderstandings in marriage, supporting a mentally ill family member, misunderstandings that cause everything to go awry and more. And yet I was left wanting a bit more from each part of the story. I wanted to see how the characters evolved.

Maybe that alone is a nod to how great the novel is because if it weren't I likely wouldn't have cared to want more. The writing in this novel is beautiful. The character development is rich. I am looking forward to another book by this author.

thanks to netgalley and the publisher for an advanced copy in return for an honest review.

Ivan and Prue both live for their careers, Ivan in philosophy and Prue as an ornithologist. For some time already, things have not run very smoothly between them, yet, it is not very clear why this is so. Maybe the fact that Prue is a lot more successful than Ivan and close to getting a tenure, or it is the arrival of one of Prue’s favourite authors who joins their circle of friends. When Prue is to give a public lecture which might finalise her post at the college, her father Frank joins them against his daughter’s wish. Frank has been struggling with his bipolar disorder and Prue fears the worst. Just a couple of days and nothing is like it was before anymore in their life.

Lindsay Stern’s debut novel leaves me a bit pondering. On the one hand, she addresses so many important topics that are worth mentioning and thinking about, on the other hand, when I finished it, I had to ask myself: and now? So what? It is a snap-shot of her characters’ life without a clear aim, I just didn’t get her intention for narrating this story.

As said before, there are interesting aspects such as the father’s way of coping with his mental issues, but also what the bipolar disorder does to him. I always find it worth writing and reading about these kinds of issues simply to raise awareness, but also to foster understanding and knowledge and I think literature can be a big help here. I also appreciated the way Stern shows the slight imbalances in the relationship between Ivan and Prue. They are professionals in different fields and certainly should not compete with each other, nevertheless, this is one of their main issues: how can a husband cope with a wife being more successful? In general, Ivan’s behaviour is worth taking a closer look at: he only starts to pay real attention to Prue when he becomes aware of other men’s attraction to her. The war they start is nasty, but I guess this is quite authentic in their situation.

There is a whole lot of theory about languages and especially bird communication. Even though I am a linguist, this did not really grab my attention since I already found the idea behind so strange that I didn’t want to go any deeper in this weird theory. Her style of writing though is quite promising and I surely would try another novel of the author.

This is my favorite debut novel since The Portable Veblen....as literary reads dwindle exponentially I thought this was a true gem, reminiscent
of the what I would look forward to from Iowa Workshop grads. Every character was so well written/developed and the plot shimmered in the background. I had a good time carrying the story forward in my imagination. If you enjoy the psychological novel set in academia that
is unique and well written with some marriage plot thrown into the mix don’t miss this super impressive read.