I Have Some Questions for You by Rebecca Makkai

I HAVE SOME QUESTIONS FOR YOU by Rebecca Makkai (The Great Believers) is another impressive work of fiction from this very talented author. Makkai writes so well and here, she utilizes multiple flashbacks to tell the story of a 1995 murder at a New Hampshire prep school. The main character, Bodie Kane, was a senior when her roommate from junior year, Thalia Keith, died; when Bodie returns to the campus in 2018 she is still processing her “disquiet” over those events. Now a successful podcaster, Bodie is teaching film appreciation and podcasting for a two week “mini-mester.” One of her current students decides to investigate the death, believing that the wrong person has been imprisoned. This sets Bodie off and she obsesses about the murder. Combined with overindulgence in alcohol and #MeToo charges that Bodie’s separated husband, Jerome, has assaulted a woman in the past, the text turns fairly dark and chilling. At points, it is difficult to get through – perhaps like the fog and anger Bodie experiences: “hard to describe the dizzy headspace I was in, except to say I no longer had any sense of what was true … I couldn’t figure out who knew more about what happened to Thalia: me now, or me at barely eighteen.” I HAVE SOME QUESTIONS FOR YOU was a LibraryReads selection for February 2023 and received starred reviews from Booklist and Publishers Weekly. For a recent NPR interview with Rebecca Makkai, click here.