The Most

Longlist, National Book Awards 2024 for Fiction

ISBN 9780316576376
Little, Brown and Company / Hachette Book Group
author photo Jessica Anthony. (Photo credit: Matt Cosby)
Jessica Anthony

Jessica Anthony is the author of four books of fiction, most recently the novel The Most. Her novel Enter The Aardvark was a finalist for the New England Book Award in Fiction. More about this author >

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From the publisher:

It’s November 3, 1957. As Sputnik 2 launches into space, carrying Laika, the doomed Soviet dog, a couple begin their day. Virgil Beckett, an insurance salesman, isn’t particularly happy in his job but he fulfills the role. Kathleen Beckett, once a promising tennis champion with a key shot up her sleeve, is now a mother and homemaker. On this unseasonably warm Sunday, Kathleen decides not to join her family at church. Instead, she unearths her old, red bathing suit and descends into the deserted swimming pool of their apartment complex in Newark, Delaware. And then she won’t come out.

Set over the course of eight hours, The Most masterly breaches the shimmering surface of a seemingly idyllic mid-century marriage, immersing us in the unspoken truth beneath.

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