Willa & Hesper

October 1, 2018
In this thoughtful and fascinating debut from Feltman, two students in Columbia’s MFA program in 2016 spiral into a romance—and just as quickly spiral out. When Hesper strikes up a conversation with Willa in a diner in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, their attraction is undeniable; Hesper is enchanting and adventurous, and Willa is endearingly attentive. The two begin to tentatively navigate the unfamiliar territory of dating women (the first such experience for both of them), narrating alternating chapters. But Willa’s intensity soon gets under Hesper’s skin; she seems to love Hesper too much, and Hesper can’t shake the certainty she will push Willa away. Both reeling from a break-up conversation that the reader never fully sees, Willa and Hesper fly from their pain: Hesper travels to Tbilisi, Georgia, on a quest to learn about her grandfather’s past; Willa’s roommate signs her up for an “Inspiring Jewish Survivor Trip!” to Germany and, to her own surprise, Willa goes. Feltman slices directly to the core of heartbreak’s ugliest moments: the temptation to fall back into patterns, to keep running from intimacy and risks. She evocatively captures the tension between aching to move on and not give up, and how the shattering of one relationship fractures others. Feltman stays away from happy ending conventions and skillfully weaves glimmers of hope and healing throughout, making for a keenly perceptive novel.

This story is told in chapters from the first-person perspectives of the protagonists, and narrators Dara Rosenberg and Christine Lakin adeptly create a well-crafted and seamless listening experience. It's a delicate, minutely observed account of a short-lived but intense romance between two women in their twenties, Willa and Hesper. Rosenberg and Lakin each voice Jewish graduate student Willa with a sweet, slightly uncertain tone, while the younger Hesper has a more distanced inflection with a deeper vocal timbre. The first few chapters are essentially a conversation between the two protagonists until their breakup sends them on different paths--Willa starts on a tour of Holocaust sites in Germany, and Hesper goes on a family trip to uncover her grandfather's history in the country of Georgia. M.J. � AudioFile 2019, Portland, Maine