Epic and Lovely: A Novel

by Mo Daviau

Epic and Lovely is the swan song of Nina Simone Blaine, the daughter of a long-dead 1950s Vegas crooner and a Texas beauty queen forty years his junior. In the wake of her unexpected divorce, Nina returns to her hometown of Los Angeles to spend her final days with The Friends of the Good Thumb, a support group for patients with A12 Fibrillin Deficiency Syndrome, a genetic disorder that affects children of much-older fathers, causes several physical deformities, and results in death around the age of forty.

Written as a deathbed letter to the UCLA physician who has tracked Nina and the other Good Thumbs throughout their lives, Nina recounts her final days with the group and with Cole, the charismatic, sadistic fellow A12er with whom she has fallen madly in love, who charms and harms her in equal measures. An unlikely alliance with a tech billionaire, the return of her estranged mother, and the birth of the baby she never thought she’d have force Nina to reckon with the triumphs and mistakes of her life and to fight to leave her child in good hands.

276 pages, Paperback

Published September 1, 2025

Reviews

[Kitty Stryker · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book hit me like a truck. Very few of the characters in it are people I would like in real life, but I felt a lot of empathy for them all the same, and all of their flawed chaotic behavior. Much like Nina’s toxic relationship with Cole, I felt myself sucked in and unable to look away, even when I was a bit horrified. I feel like this is the kind of book that would appeal to people who enjoy true crime, in that it hit that fascination/revulsion button for me- and even while it was much more extreme than my own experiences, I saw my own relationships with toxic men, my own desperation to be seen, and my own eventual freedom from such recognition. I wouldn’t necessarily call this a fun read, but it was an engrossing one.

I received this book in exchange for my honest review!

[Kristy · Rating 5 out of 5]

In her second novel, Daviau gives us the visceral, funny, and unique story of Nina Simone Blaine, a 39-year-old woman who was born with A12 Syndrome (a made-up disease that is slightly Marfan Syndrome-y), caused by the advanced age of her not-particularly-successful Vegas crooner father and her much younger Dallas beauty queen mother. The disease comes with a lot of features including missing fingers on one hand and a likely expiration date of 40 years of age. In addition, Nina had been told that giving birth could kill her and yet here, at the assumed end of her life, she finds herself having just given birth to a daughter she conceived with fellow A12-er, her (post-separation from her stable and milquetoast long time husband) charismatic and abusive late-life lover, Cole. The book is Nina's letter to her long-time doctor at the UCLA Rare Disorders Clinic, Dr. Tabitha Chen, who will also be the adoptive mother of Nina's daughter. If this sounds complicated, it is, but Daviau masterfully turns this into a page-turner that is both hilarious and devastating. Certain set-pieces, particularly relating to Cole, are absolutely brutal, but we never lose the grasp of the characters -- anchored by our flawed but lovable protagonist, Nina. As a person who is deep inside the medical industrial complex and who also has a life-limiting disease, the doctor-patient relationship and the complicated support Nina has from a group of other A12-ers her age, brought together by Dr. Chen, really hit home. If you want a barn burner of a one-of-a-kind literary novel that tears you down and lifts you up, this is the one.

[Steve · Rating 5 out of 5]

Understanding human nature through exploring paradox is one of my very favorite topics. "Epic and Lovely", the second novel from the brilliant Mo Daviau, is full of paradox, complicated characters, and emotional surprises that illuminate humanity's multifacetedness in ways only great novels can.

There's a moment in Epic and Lovely when a mother calls their child on the phone. The details of that call are different from my personal situation with my parents, but the tone and subtle emotionality was sharply perfect and resonated strongly enough with the darker parts of my history that I had to stop and put the book down. Other novels have hit me close to home before, but this moment blew the dust off of aspects of myself that I don't visit very often, and to me that's profound art.

For most of my read, I didn't know how to feel about the characters. They're all flawed in relatable ways, but not popularly or cool related ways. More like relatable because sometimes life's really hard and there's no getting around it. In the end I loved our heroine for real, because she was fiercely herself in defiance of all expectations, and was imbued with such agency that I think the overall theme of the novel may be about how radical self-actualization can make ripples and echoes in the world around us.

[Margy Avery · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the best female protagonists / antiheroines in the game is Nina Simone Blaine, who tells her story with perfect acerbic wit and cutting observations. Nina
tells her story as a woman living in an imperfect life in her imperfect body marred by a connective tissue disorder who falls in love with a very imperfect man who breaks her heart as her body’s clock is running out. observations. The only child of a Texas beauty queen and a former Vegas crooner father with decades in age difference - and it is the old man sperm that caused her condition - Nina recounts the past year of her life trying to make sense of her broken heart.

[Gemma Whelan · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was reminded of Samuel Beckett’s “They give birth astride of a grave….”
This book is a massive scream from the death bed of a woman who has just given birth. In her last years, Nina Simone Blaine lives life large and dangerous, drawn inexorably towards her abusive and charismatic lover Cole. The book is an epistle addressed to the doctor who has cared for her and her small group of friends who share a genetic disorder that affects children of much older fathers. It’s a huge, throttle wide open exploration of Nina’s short life, her choices, her complex ties with family and friends, and the larger-than-life decisions she makes about her own and her newborn daughter’s life.

[Ron Turker · Rating 5 out of 5]

An epic ride through trials and tribulations of an "A12-er" and her A12 cohort. A group of early-forty-somethings with "A12 Fibrillin Deficiency syndrome" are closing in on their literal deadline. The age barrier A12-ers just don't break. Daviau explores love everlasting and why sometimes it just can't last. An admittedly flawed set of characters spark just the right mix to keep themselves afloat--until they can't.
A great character study!

[Amy Doan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved it! Full review TK

[Rebecca N. · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a hilarious and clever and beautiful and heartfelt book! Highly recommended.

[Lala · Rating 5 out of 5]

few books have solicited as visceral of a physical reaction as this one did.