Joan's Picks: The Guest and Wavewalker

The Guest by Emma Cline: Summer is coming to a close on the East End of Long Island, and Alex is no longer welcome. A misstep at a dinner party, and the older man she's been staying with dismisses her with a ride to the train station and a ticket back to the city. With few resources and a waterlogged phone, but gifted with an ability to navigate the desires of others, Alex stays on Long Island and drifts like a ghost through the hedged lanes, gated driveways, and sun-blasted dunes of a rarified world that is, at first, closed to her. Propelled by desperation and a mutable sense of morality, she spends the week leading up to Labour Day moving from one place to the next, a cipher leaving destruction in her wake. Taut, propulsive, and impossible to look away from, Emma Cline's The Guest is a spellbinding literary achievement.  Wavewalker by Suzanne Heywood: Author Suzanne Heywood captures her childhood in a coming-of-age memoir that sees a sailing adventure turn into a drawn-out floating nightmare. What started as a three year journey turns into ten, with seven-year-old Suzanne spending an isolated childhood on a boat with limited time to study. It's an heart-breaking, yet inspiring look into a journey of parental neglect and isolation. LISTEN ABOVE   See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.