Burn and Rave

From the bestselling author of Grief Is the Thing with Feathers, the uproarious and brilliantly inventive new novel from Max Porter.

Quiet on set, please.

Enter Lynette: Actor, writer, director, showrunner, and star of her final movie in her head—is it a comedy, a tragedy, a farce, or . . . just life?

Her more recent roles include: The ex-wife (he left for a younger woman); sixty-something daughter to dead parents; sister to dead siblings (they haunt her sometimes); mother to a long-suffering daughter; furious owner of the world’s best-behaved dog. Oh, and a force of nature.

Here’s what else you need to know about Lynette:

It’s her birthday, and she’s waking up in a hotel room, hungover, in a dreary English seaside town. Outside are gray skies, crazy golf, a row of border defense huts.

She hasn’t worked in a while (she hasn’t been very well). But maybe you recognize her from that television drama that ran and ran? People often do.

Rising this morning, she has one thing on her mind: to meet and slay the ghosts of the past and the ills of today. And, knowing Lynette, she won’t go gentle into that good night.