The Names

Knapp’s intriguing and nuanced debut comprises three alternate story lines for a British family. After giving birth to a baby boy in 1987, Cora goes to the registry office to record his name. Her abusive husband, Gordon, wants the baby named after himself, her nine-year-old daughter thinks Bear would be a good name, and Cora prefers Julian. In each of the three parallel timelines, Cora assigns the baby a different one of the three names, and the lives of the family members unfold radically differently. In the Bear timeline, Cora and the children are mostly free of Gordon, while in the Julian version, the children are raised by Cora’s mother in Ireland. When the boy is named Gordon, the three live under the father’s tyrannical rule. Minor characters in one timeline sometimes play major roles in another, as Knapp reveals which attributes are intrinsic to her characters’ personalities and which are more subject to outside influences. All three story lines twist and turn in surprising but logical directions, as Knapp provides insights into the ways familial pressure can prevent personal growth. Readers won’t be able to stop talking about this intelligent exploration of a single choice’s long tail of repercussions. Agent: Anna Stein, CAA. (May)