Loved One

Julia and Gabe fell for each other one summer in Barcelona, then spent most of a decade drifting between friendship and something more while he chased a music career in Los Angeles. When Gabe, now a cult-favorite indie musician, dies unexpectedly at twenty-nine, Julia is left holding a question that outlasts her grief: what did it mean that the two of them finally slept together three weeks before he died, and never spoke of it again?

At his mother Leora's request, Julia sets off on an international search to recover the personal items Gabe left scattered with friends and exes, a journey that carries her from Los Angeles to London and into an uneasy orbit around Elizabeth — Gabe's composed, hard-to-read ex-girlfriend, who isn't ready to hand over his guitar.

As the two women circle each other, each holding a piece of Gabe the other wants, Julia is forced to reckon not just with losing him, but with the relationship she and Gabe never had the nerve to name.

Aisha Muharrar's debut novel is a wry, emotionally precise portrait of adult friendship, ambiguous love, and the stories we tell ourselves about the people we've lost.