Half Lives: A Novel

From the nationally bestselling author of The Future Saints, a powerful new coming-of-age novel about love and heartbreak, friendship and betrayal, and how the stories we tell ourselves about our lives can determine our fates.

Two years ago, Cameron published a novel inspired by her college experience. The book made her a literary star, but cost her two of the people she cared most about: her best friend, Ferrell, and Nick, the enigmatic man she once loved. Ever since, Cameron has struggled to write—until a surprise invitation to Ferrell’s wedding arrives, and she risks returning to Tennessee to face her critics, hoping for a shot at redemption.

But when tensions run high and a storm threatens to ruin the weekend, she’s forced to work with Nick to salvage the event for people who may not be willing to forgive her. In the process, Cameron is confronted with the full truth of Nick’s side of the story, and all its thorny complications.

Alternating between real life and chapters from Cameron’s book, Half Lives tells the story of a young man and woman from different social circles who fall in love as undergraduates and struggle over the next decade to build lives they can be proud of while navigating their magnetic, confusing relationship.

Cameron thought she knew what kind of story she and Nick were in—after all, she’s the one who wrote it. But over the course of one long weekend on the lake in Tennessee, everything she thought she knew about her past, her relationships, and her own role will unravel—leaving a fresh, blank page, if she’s brave enough to fill it.