The wildelings A novel

Jessica and Linda have been best friends since they were children. Raised by her stepmother, Jessica sees Linda's need for love yet often secretly hurts her. Their dynamic continues when they attend college at Wilde, an arts-focused university in Dublin. Jessica is instantly a star on campus, cast as the lead in the semester's play, recognized as a beauty by the student magazine, and coupled up with a French student named Jacques. Linda remains Jessica's meek best friend until Linda meets Mark, a fourth-year philosophy student. But when Jessica finds herself both drawn to and suspicious of Mark, he starts his own experiments in social dynamics. When Mark casts Jessica in his reimagining of The Merchant of Venice, she becomes entangled in his powerful grasp. The narrative is framed by Jessica's visits to a therapist as an adult after a divorce, adding a meta-element to the main story line. Irish novelist Harding's (Cloud Girls, 2023) incisive character studies and sharp descriptions of manipulation and social pressures make her writing feel alive.

In the striking latest from Harding (Bright Burning Things), two lifelong friends are torn apart by a mercurial philosophy student at their university. In a frame narrative, 40-something Jessica McSwain tells her therapist about what happened decades earlier, after she enrolled at the pretentious and artistic Wilde College, where she persuaded her childhood friend Linda to join her. At school, Jessica finds herself entangled in an explosive romance with her classmate Jacques, and they soon become the most popular couple on campus. Linda, shy and insecure, grew up in glamorous Jessica's shadow, and when she meets fourth-year philosophy student Mark, he pushes her to become a more direct and open-minded version of herself. Mark also antagonizes Jessica, humiliating the aspiring actor by casting her in a play he directs about a conniving woman. After Mark encourages Jacques, Jessica, and Linda to use unspecified drugs at a party, the group is impacted in a way that continues to have repercussions decades later. Some plot elements are frustratingly unresolved after a late climax, but Harding mostly makes up for it by crafting complex characters and exploring the messy contours of a female friendships. It's a bracing tale. Agent: Clare Alexander, Aitken Alexander Assoc. (Apr.)