In Five Years

December 23, 2019
Serle’s bewitching story of love and friendship (after The Dinner List) centers on a young woman who plans her life down to the minute until fate gets in the way. At 28, Dannie Kohan lives happily with her boyfriend, David, in a Manhattan apartment and is poised to land her dream job as a lawyer at a top firm. Dannie expects to get married by the time she’s 30; right on track, David proposes, giving Dannie a ring picked out by her best friend Bella. After accepting the proposal, Dannie slips into a deep sleep and dreams of an alternate future, where everything is off-kilter. In her dream, it’s the year 2025 and she lives with a man named Aaron Gregory. Upon waking, Dannie begins to second-guess her regimented course, and as the years pass, she puts off the marriage. On a rainy day in June 2025, she meets up with Bella, now a successful art dealer, and is stunned to find her accompanied by Aaron, the man from her dream. She senses a mutual recognition, and, after Bella receives devastating news, Dannie and Aaron grow closer. While the plot hinges on well-worn tropes, the deadpan prose highlights the author’s keen sense of irony. Serle’s whimsical tale is book club catnip. (Mar.)This review has been updated to remove a spoiler.

Megan Hilty delivers a stellar narration as Danny in this unforgettable story of love and friendship. The novel opens on the last day of 2019, when an engagement is on the horizon. Danny dozes off and wakes in a new apartment, with a new guy, five years in the future. Hilty adds so much to the narrative and dialogue with pauses and emphasis that listeners will feel Danny's anxiety and perplexity. Back in 2020, the story takes a sad turn, and Hilty adjusts her pacing and tone to enhance the mood. Hilty's talent especially shines again at the end, when listeners revisit the scene from five years earlier. Now, knowing the path that led to that night, Hilty delivers the same scene with reverence, clarity, and longing. S.K.G. � AudioFile 2020, Portland, Maine