In the Lobby of the Dream Hotel

In Plunkett’s perceptive debut novel, a young mother and musician struggles with bipolar disorder and her controlling husband. Portia Elby is 20 years old and a recent college dropout when she’s first admitted to a psychiatric hospital. After she’s discharged, and still wearing the hospital’s plastic ID bracelets, she meets Nathan, a prosecutor 11 years her senior, who initially seems fascinated by the “young and troubled” woman. Their relationship progresses to marriage and pregnancy within a few years, and Portia, whose rock group Poor Alice has developed a “small following” in Vermont, tries to balance motherhood and marriage with the “sacred” intimacy of being in a band. Nathan grows increasingly bothered by Portia’s need for affection and her tendency to daydream, and his frustration culminates when he finds out she’s stopped taking her bipolar medication because she’s worried it’s stifling her creativity—and has started an affair with Theo, the band’s drummer. Short, intense chapters reflect Portia’s mental state and preoccupation with finding what she really wants out of life (“Sometimes I feel like I have to choose myself again every day. From scratch”), and the story’s momentum dwindles and surges along with her moods. It adds up to an incisive portrait of mental health and the search for autonomy. Agent: Reiko Davis, DeFiore & Co. (Aug.)