The Unwritten Book

The latest work by novelist Hunt (The Invention of Everything Else) is not easily classified or described. The general premise is an exploration of the significance of books that are never written or never finished because life and death rob people of time and space to take on their projects. However, the moment this book begins to settle comfortably onto one path, it suddenly veers off in a completely different direction. Throughout the work, Hunt shares pieces of a novel her late father worked on for many years but never finished. These pieces leave readers pondering the writing process and the possible routes the work could have taken. Hunt adds her own notes and thoughts to her father’s incomplete work, focusing on his life and writing process. Interspersed with these pieces of someone else’s unfinished fiction are vignettes from Hunt’s own life. Grappling with death is a theme throughout Hunt’s work; the natures of reality and the paranormal are also common motifs.