Asymmetry

 Asymmetry by Lisa Halliday, 275 pages.

The characters and the wonderful, absorbing writing by Halliday, and her absolute clarity masked, for me, the fact that until the end of the book I had no idea how the two disparate parts were really coming together. Even after the end, I'm still not too sure, but I am pretty sure that this lack of understanding reflects a flaw in my reading and not in the writing. I am pretty sure that I love this book and am grateful to my coworkers who were talking this one up. The first part of the book concerns Alice, a young woman who is working as an editor and who wants to be a writer, and who after a chance encounter, develops a relationship with an elderly writer, an icon of American literature. In the second part of the book, Aman, an American Economist, born to Iraqi immigrants, reflects on recent events in his life and the lives of his family as he waits out a layover at Heathrow airport in an airport detention facility.
Really worth the time. Plus there's a list of recommended recordings at the end of the book.