Karen Latuchie
The Honey Wall
A Novel
An erotically charged debut—with a psychological acumen reminiscent of Paula Fox—about the complications of intimacy and infidelity.
Nina and Tony are twenty years into a turbulent marriage-like relationship. Her world is centered at home in rural Pennsylvania: she builds intricate kinetic toys, her solitude both solace and confinement. He is a painter, in New York much of the time. Bill, the ailing caretaker of a nearby farm, a virtual stranger to Nina, tells her the story of his affair with his brother's wife forty years before. In intertwining narratives, we see how Bill's troubled life unfolded, and how his story comes to obsess Nina, triggering her own memories: of fiery years with Tony, of their infidelities and ineluctable passion for each other, and of her struggle with the boundaries of the relationship—real and imagined.
"Redolent with apprehension and sudden longing....The deeper values of the book lie in the challenges that face all the characters and ourselves: are passion and honesty—about love, about the world—finally incompatible?"—Gregory Maguire, author of Wicked
"Gracefully intertwining two love stories, of a man and a woman from vastly different worlds, Karen Latuchie reveals how passion compounded by pride will lead us astray. With a candor that is rigorous yet tender, she has crafted a wise and heartbreaking novel."—Julia Glass, National Book Award-winning author of The Three Junes
Karen Latuchie has worked at Alfred A. Knopf for twenty-five years. Her stories have appeared in The Paris Review and Southwest Review. She lives in Jersey City, New Jersey.
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