How do we deal with the loss of a life never lived? As with her first two novels, Night Blue and The Sitter, Angela O’Keeffe’s latest book uses an unconventional narrator to tell a beautifully layered story about human creativity, connection and longing.
At the centre of Phantom Days is Isabel, a woman in her mid-30s. She’s childless, single, unambitious and working the same arts job she’s had for a decade. She has a few close friends and a loving but complex relationship with her mother, Maggie, who is recovering from chemotherapy. Though her mother thinks she’s going nowhere, Isabel is outwardly content with her life. But something is missing. “If I were to create a thing outside of myself, what would it be?” she asks herself.
