The writing is clear and economical, and to Maksik’s credit it never competes with Jacqueline’s ongoing plight. Add a plot so tightly focused on her immediate hardships and the unbreakable link to her mother, whose voice comes to her in memory with advice both wanted and unwanted, and Maksik seems to have set up an absolute gauntlet for himself.

Aciman views the places he visits – Rome, Barcelona, Paris, Tuscany, and New York, among other locales – not with the wondering, landmark-seeking eye of a tourist, but with the speculative, assessing eye of a potential resident.