If only it were true

Arthur, a young architect, moves into a new San Francisco apartment expecting nothing unusual. Instead he finds Lauren, the apartment's previous tenant, who appears to him as a presence only he can perceive. Lauren, it turns out, is a doctor lying in a coma across town after an accident, and this strange projection of her is somehow tied to her old home.

As Arthur and Lauren spend time together, an unlikely closeness grows between them, complicated by the fact that no one else can see or hear her, and that her family is preparing to let her go. Arthur is left trying to convince the people around him, and himself, that what he's experiencing is real, while racing against time to find a way to save her before the decision is taken out of anyone's hands.

Marc Levy's debut novel is a quiet, emotional love story about presence, loss, and how far someone will go for a connection they can't fully explain.