Daphne: A Novel
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4.2 • 9 Ratings
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- $11.99
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
In this “elegant meditation on modern-day emotion” (San Francisco Chronicle), best-selling, prize-winning author Will Boast reimagines the myth of Daphne and Apollo.
Will Boast’s long-anticipated first novel is an “outright marvelous debut [that] breathes fresh vigor into timeless questions of love and risk” (Laura van den Berg). Born with a rare condition in which she suffers degrees of paralysis when faced with intense emotion, Daphne has had few close friends and fewer lovers. Like her mythic namesake, one touch can freeze her. But when Daphne meets shy, charming Ollie, her well-honed defenses falter, and she’s faced with a critical choice: cling to her protective isolation or risk the recklessness of real intimacy. Set against the backdrop of a San Francisco flush with money and pulsing with protest, Daphne is “an amiable exploration of how humans might come to manage their raucous hearts” (NewYorker.com).
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
Will Boast’s debut novel is a clever retelling of the Greek myth of Daphne and Apollo set in modern-day San Francisco. Because the story’s told in first person, we can really step into Daphne’s regimented life, which she has shaped around a mysterious medical condition. She’s got a high-paying, slightly nightmarish job and a perfectly curated Mission district condo, but her steely shell starts to crack when she meets sweet and scruffy Ollie. Equal parts tender love story and an exploration of what it’s like to live with a debilitating illness, Daphne pulled us in from the first page.
Customer Reviews
Daphne: A Novel
Boast’s writing captures the reader’s attention and brings the characters to life in a way that makes it hard to leave them at the end of the book. Daphne shares her story, her friends, her support group with unfailing honesty and poignant desire for a normal life. Her family dysfunction and tenuous love affair remind all of us of our own and the human condition. How emotions can break your heart—or kill you—when deeply felt; empathy both lifts and crushes the spirits. Thought-provoking and memorable.