Asymmetry

The bestselling and critically acclaimed debut novel by Lisa Halliday, hailed as “extraordinary” by The New York Times, “a brilliant and complex examination of power dynamics in love and war” by The Wall Street Journal, and “a literary phenomenon” by The New Yorker. Told in three distinct and uniquely compelling sections, Asymmetry explores the imbalances that spark and sustain many of our most dramatic human relations: inequities in age, power, talent, wealth, fame, geography, and justice. The first section, “Folly,” tells the story of Alice, a young American editor at a New York City publishing company who becomes romantically involved with Ezra Blazer—a much older man who is also a famous writer. A tender and exquisite account of an unexpected romance that takes place in New York during the early years of the Iraq War—it also suggests an aspiring novelist’s coming-of-age. By contrast, “Madness” is narrated by Amar—an Iraqi-American man who, on his way to visit his brother in Kurdistan remains stuck at JFK International Airport for 12 hours as he watches protestors surround the airport against Trump's recent immigration ban.