Arnold, Elana K. Holloway. HarperCollins/Clarion, 04/2026. 352pp. Fiction. Trade $19.99. 978-0-06-299088-4. GRADES 10–Adult. HIGH ADDITIONAL.
Nora, an autistic eighteen-year-old, leaves everything behind to travel to Paris to scatter her mother’s ashes, hoping to bring closure to a relationship shaped by her mother’s anti-vax beliefs and misguided attempts to “correct” Nora’s behaviors. After a frightening encounter with a stranger, Nora seeks refuge in a holloway that transports her back to postwar France in the 1940s, where she enters an unusual asylum (based on an actual place) that celebrates the power of the mind and creative expression. Settings are keenly described, providing insight into the COVID era and post–World War II France. Although the time-travel element remains underdeveloped, the narrative’s lengthy interior monologues deepen the reader’s understanding of the way Nora experiences the world. The conclusion ties together many loose ends, making this ambitious novel rewarding for patient readers. Nora is Jewish; she makes friends with two women, one who is Jewish and the other Roma.
Jenny Andrus—Independent