Tuesday, January 28, 2025

Seven books where real estate drives the plot

Daniel Kenitz is a freelance writer and the author of the thriller The Perfect Home. He has also published several short stories, including the Pushcart Prize-nominated "A Hand to the Plow" (2022, Red Rock Review), "Tickleneck" (2022, Spotlong Review), "The Cycle" (2021, Evening Street Review), "Seen" (2020, Every Day Fiction), "The Parent License" (2020, The Virginia Normal), and "Sunset 9037" (2013, Strangelet Magazine).

At Electric Lit Kenitz tagged seven novels in which "authors have skillfully used unique real estate situations for all sorts of literary purposes: metaphors, side plots, symbols, and entanglements." One title on the list:
The Last Thing He Told Me by Laura Dave

The Last Thing He Told Me begins in a floating home, and the metaphor there is a life about to be swept away in the current. What a great choice, because the effect is instant: Owen’s mysterious “Protect her” letter kicks off a story with riverine momentum. The search unites Hannah and Bailey—not related by blood but through Owen—the same way the floating home forced them into living in close quarters.
Read about the other entries on the list at Electric Lit.

--Marshal Zeringue