The Hard Tomorrow

Davis (Why Art?) gently observes the foibles of modern social justice seekers in this vulnerable domestic drama. Hannah, a home health aide and activist, is attempting to get pregnant while she organizes grassroots leftism as her husband, Johnny, faces their future with considerably less drive. Their worlds are largely separate, as evinced through Davis’s elegant, romantic, and densely drawn linework: Hannah is immersed in elder care, protesting, politics, and her charged friendship with fellow activist Gabby; while Johnny drifts from completing the building of their home to working on a noxious friend’s survivalist compound. Rather than glory in the couple’s flaws, from Hannah’s naiveté to Johnny’s idleness, or sand down these rough edges, Davis presents her protagonists’ messy humanity in a kind, plain light. Their miniature saga feels less like the arc of fiction and more like a few days lifted intact from real lives. But, then, Davis seems to argue that any life is rich and complicated enough to merit its own book—and she convinces the reader she is right. Agent: Steven Malk, Writers House (Oct.)