The Intangible

Washington’s cerebral debut delves into the complex territory of intimacy and relationships. These subjects are nuanced and difficult under the best of circumstances, and are complicated further in Washington’s story by trauma, grief, and questions of what it means to be human. An interwoven story of two marriages, the novel follows Amanda and Derrick, struggling with a recent pregnancy loss, and Patrick and Marissa, who are dealing with a crumbling marriage and a traumatic loss of their own. The four characters’ lives are intertwined when Patrick, a neuroscientist, is enlisted to support Amanda with an additional complication of her miscarriage, pseudocyesis, or “phantom pregnancy.” What follows is a story of love, loss, science, and the search for answers to life’s big questions. The writing is rich and complex, though at times ventures into the hard-to-follow scientific language of high-level academia. The timeline can be confusing, and the lyrical quality of the writing is bogged down by the vocal performances by Jordan Cobb, Will Damron, Andrew Eiden, and Megan Tusing.