Must Love Books, Shauna Robinson's debut novel, explores themes of career, identity and fulfillment. Nora is an editorial assistant, a "mere publishing peasant," who makes some spectacular career mistakes and, as a result, must put her life back together. She has no real authority, no work friends remaining in the wake of mass layoffs and departures, and, as a half-Black woman in an all-too-white field, no future in sight. With meager pay, she's barely scraping by as it is. When a freelance gig with a rival publishing house opens up, she decides to work both jobs in order to make ends meet and give her résumé a boost.
As with any set-up that requires lying to every person one may encounter in the course of a day, the situation works for a brief time--until it eventually blows up in Nora's face. Though the novel includes elements of romantic comedy--Nora starts to fall for an author she works with--it ultimately proves much heavier than that, as Robinson explores how career and identity can be linked, how money locks Nora into a life she hates and how depression can escalate into something much larger, whispering "what if?" in the darkest moments of the night. "It was internalized now," Nora reflects, "this idea of fulfillment." While Must Love Books moves toward a happy ending in some ways, it is in this murky questioning that it shines: How does one define fulfillment? Is it okay to settle for a good-enough life? Nora learns that these are not questions with easy answers--but that maybe the questioning is the most important part. --Kerry McHugh, freelance writer