Luna, Phoenix, Queen

by Julie Orringer

A spellbinding tour de force from the author of The Invisible Bridge—a novel about varieties of infidelity, the provenance of a literary masterpiece, and the power of storytelling to shape identity and destiny.

Dava and Barr Pennington, professors at a Midwestern university, both harbor potent secrets. Fiction writing is his specialty, English literature is hers. But Dava is unhappy in their marriage, and secretly in love with a colleague, Svetlana White, who teaches in the Russian Studies department; spurred by their complicated liaison, she spends her nights working on a novel about two women who run a domestic violence shelter in coastal Maine. Though she loves the work and the refuge it provides, the writing becomes increasingly difficult as her memory begins to fail; tests reveal that she’s suffering from early-onset Alzheimer’s. After a precipitous decline, she moves to a memory-care facility in a neighboring town. Soon afterward, her husband, alone in the house at night, discovers her hidden manuscript, which he reads with envy, and then with anger, as he extrapolates his wife’s affair from the relationship described in the novel’s pages. Over the next two years he rewrites the novel and publishes it as his own, to wide acclaim. But persistent feelings of guilt lead him to confess his theft to an unlikely party, who leads others to the truth.

Luna, Phoenix, Queen tells its tale of artistic and marital betrayal in a chorus of voices. We hear from Barr as he becomes obsessed with Luna, a horrifically injured dog at a local shelter; from Dava as she meets Svetlana for the first time, on a transatlantic flight to Dublin; from Milo, Dava’s son, as he hides in the woods with Naomi, Svetlana’s daughter; from Svetlana, experiencing the loss of a relationship that ended before it could come to fruition; from Evie, Pennington’s research assistant, who witnessed Dava’s last days at home with her husband; from James, the Penningtons’ younger son, who makes a startling discovery after his father’s death; and from Milo and Svetlana again, as they grieve the injustice of Pennington’s theft and confront the devastation of Dava’s disease.

In a narrative that spans four decades and four thousand miles, Luna, Phoenix, Queen illuminates the power of storytelling and explores the terror of losing the ability to make sense of our world. It is a cry of rage against our vulnerability and helplessness, an acknowledgement of the mysteries beneath the familiar surface of our world, and ultimately, if unexpectedly, a radical testament to love in its many forms.

Genres: Fiction, Literary Fiction, LGBT, Contemporary, Literature, Novels, Adult

288 pages, Hardcover

Expected publication October 13, 2026

About the author

Julie Orringer is an American author born in Miami, Florida. Her first book, How to Breathe Underwater, was published in September 2003 by Knopf Publishing Group. She is a graduate of Cornell University and the Iowa Writers' Workshop and was a Stegner Fellow at Stanford University. Her stories have appeared in The Paris Review, McSweeney's, Ploughshares, Zoetrope: All-Story, The Pushcart Prize Anthology, The Best New American Voices, and The Best American Non-Required Reading. She received the Paris Review's Discovery Prize, two Pushcart Prizes, The Yale Review Editors' Prize, Ploughshares' Cohen Award, the Northern California Book Award, and the Anne and Robert Cowan Award from the Jewish Community Endowment Fund. She was the recipient of a 2004-5 NEA grant for her current project, a novel set in Budapest and Paris before and during the Second World War.

Reviews

[Angela M]

Oh what a tangled web….

This novel which is about spousal infidelity and betrayal of another kind made me angry as characters deceived each other and themselves. It was also about Alzheimer’s Disease and it was heartbreaking in its realistic portrayal. It also touched my heart with the love found here. The story is told from multiple points of view - a husband and wife, both professors, another professor who is the lover of one of them, their children, a research assistant, and a dog they all come to love . A complex mix of emotions, actions and connections had me questioning motives, feeling ambivalent about these characters, except one whose actions and cruelty were beyond my ability to forgive .

With each POV we learn more about the other characters than is divulged from their perspective. Orrringer does an amazing job with telling the story through this mechanism as the characters are complex. The Goodreads description gives more detail of the story so no need to repeat it here . I’ll just say it is well written, the characterizations are excellent and the ending is fitting.

I read The Invisible Bridge quite some time ago and even years after I remember it . So it was not a difficult choice to read this one. Although very different stories, they are both worth reading .

I received a copy of this from Knopf through NetGalley.

[Karen]

So, I went into this book completely blind.
I loved the title and the cover and I had heard of this author, and some older novels of hers were highly rated.. so I grabbed the ARC.
This was a beautiful book, and a story within a story, very emotional.
It covers four decades.
There is a married professional couple,
(Barr and Dava) both professors and writers…Dava is devoted to her family yet falls for a woman (Svetlana) and they become lovers and their children become friends.
Dava is diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer’s.
This story is about love in all it’s complicated forms and the topics explored are artistic ambition, betrayal, literary theft, memory, secrecy, family and the stories we tell ourselves and others.
I love how the author really makes us feel each of the characters feelings and emotions in all their situations.
We cannot forget about the dog, a rescue who had been badly burned in a fire and brings something very special to the story…
her name changes from Luna, to Phoenix, to Queen! ❤️

Thank you to NetGalley and Knopf for the free ebook in exchange for my honest review!

[Kasa Cotugno]

The story unfolds through the experiences of the characters, each allotted a distinct voice and sector. How Barr, wracked with guilt over the approbation of his wife's work, finds solace in the presence of a highly unusual shelter dog, one that has suffered herself. And where that very same dog leads the characters makes for hauntingly beautiful reading. Everyone has secrets, some not as apparent, and all questions remain unanswered, but I can't recommend this novel enough.

[Patty Ramirez]

This is going to be one of my top reads of 2026! Really enjoyed the different POVs and I loved how the meaning of the title of the book starts being revealed as the story progresses.

When you read the synopsis for this title you already know that Barr will be the most hated character, but what I was not prepared for was how much I was going to end up despising him! Loved and was heartbroken with Dava and Svetlana's story, and I also loved Evie.

Read this!

Thank you to Knopf and the author for providing a free copy of this book through NetGalley.

[Richard Derus]

FINALIST for the 2026 Kirkus Prize for Fiction. Winner announced on Kirkus' YouTube channel 7 October 2026.

[Mallory Moyer]

Barr is a celebrated novelist whose professor wife Dava suffers from early onset dementia. His novel is built on the scaffolding of a story Dava wrote, chronicling her years-long affair with her colleague Svetlana. His greed and guilt and grief are tempered when he unexpectedly bonds with a shelter dog. This singular and perceptive dog ends up deeply impacting the lives of Barr, his research assistant Evie, his children Milo and James, Svetlana, and the rapidly-declining Dava herself.

This book is utterly exquisite. Julie Orringer weaves a web with these characters to explore trust, betrayal, truth, connection, obligation, and devotion, with the throughline of this astonishing dog tying all of their experiences together.

[Maine Colonial]

At the start of the novel, Barr Pennington is a professor of literature at a midwestern university. (It seemed like Iowa State in Ames, Iowa, to me.) Barr’s life has gone downhill. His wife, Dava, a brilliant professor of comparative literature has been diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer’s and is now in a care home a 30-minute drive away. His two sons have left the nest, and he is alone in the big old house, not doing a good job at writing, teaching, or being a mentor to his graduate assistant, Evie.

Barr makes two discoveries that have an outsized effect on his psyche. He accidentally discovers stacks of yellow legal pads that he finds contain a novel hand-written by Dava, ostensibly about her mother and her lover who ran a women’s shelter, but which Barr can tell is a love story between Dava and her colleague Svetlana, overlaid on her mother’s history. Barr decides to transcribe the legal pads, but finds himself editing as he goes, then turning the novel in to his agent and editor as his own work, a work that will sell in great numbers and win acclaim. Barr also visits the local animal shelter and becomes obsessed with a dog named Luna who was burned in a house fire. But just when Barr decides to adopt Luna, he finds that someone else has adopted her.

After beginning with Barr’s point of view, the novel alternates through several different characters’ viewpoints, including Dava, Svetlana, Evie, the Pennington sons, and Svetlana’s daughter. And coiling throughout is Luna, a dog with a gift for taking on humans’ need for sympathy and affection.

The is a beautiful and engrossing story about love, pain, and betrayal.

[Kayla Honaker]

It took me a while to get through this book, which is rare for me. It didn’t hold my attention as I thought it would. I’m usually a sucker for a book about dogs. While the premise was sweet (dog helps people get through hard times), the story just didn’t hold my interest. I find literary novels don’t ever really hold my attention, though. I am grateful to receive an ARC nonetheless and I hope that I will be able to receive more in the future.

[Kristi Lamont]

BOOK REPORT
Received a complimentary copy of Luna, Phoenix, Queen by Julie Orringer from Knopf, Pantheon, Vintage, and Anchor | Knopf/NetGalley, for which I am appreciative, in exchange for a fair and honest review. Scroll past the BOOK REPORT section for a cut-and-paste of the DESCRIPTION of it from them if you want to read my thoughts on the book in the context of that summary.

⭐ 1.25 ⭐

Oh good Lord, y’all, what was I thinking, reading a book described by its publisher not only as “a literary masterpiece,” but “a major literary event”???

I know better. KNOW better.

Call me a philistine if you will, but I’m much more a fan of a good story than I am “good writing.” And not only was this not a good story, the writing itself felt overwrought, forced, and formulaic. None of the characters were likeable, not even the dog. Plus there were so many descriptions of so many things. SO, so very many LONG and QUITE DETAILED descriptions of so, so very many things……

Welp. Like I told my husband, I have only myself to blame. May as well have picked up a Man-Booker Prize-winning for all the favors I did myself sticking with this very boring book throughout the morning.

The only reason I’m giving the additional quarter star is because I think that I liked the idea of Monographs, Gelato & Betrayal as a name for an album.

PS
If this the first time you’ve read something I have written on Goodreads and/or NetGalley, please know that 99.4 percent of the time I have nothing but admiration for someone who has the imagination and discipline to write a fiction book. This is one of those times; I appreciate that Julie Orringer is someone who has such talent and skill, and I’m figuring that lots and lots of people really enjoy her work. (I personally had never heard of her before downloading this book the other day.)

Also, my Book Reports are not standard book reviews. Instead, they’re my reactions to what I’ve read, set within the context of my own life experiences and whatever’s going on in the world today. So I fully understand that what is my cuppa might not be someone else’s.

Cheerios, then!

DESCRIPTION
A spellbinding tour de force from the bestselling author of The Invisible Bridge—a novel about varieties of infidelity, the provenance of a literary masterpiece, and the power of storytelling to shape identity and destiny.

“Luna, Phoenix, Queen breaks all the rules and makes its own. Gripping, heartbreaking, redemptive and a joy to read, Orringer has given readers a great gift. It will knock your socks off.” —Andrew Sean Greer, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of Less

Dava and Barr Pennington, professors at a Midwestern university, both harbor potent secrets. Fiction writing is his specialty, English literature is hers. But Dava is unhappy in their marriage, and secretly in love with a colleague, Svetlana White, who teaches in the Russian Studies department; spurred by their complicated liaison, she spends her nights working on a novel about two women who run a domestic violence shelter in coastal Maine. Though she loves the work and the refuge it provides, the writing becomes increasingly difficult as her memory begins to fail; tests reveal that she’s suffering from early-onset Alzheimer’s. After a precipitous decline, she moves to a memory-care facility in a neighboring town. Soon afterward, her husband, alone in the house at night, discovers her hidden manuscript, which he reads with envy, and then with anger, as he extrapolates his wife’s affair from the relationship described in the novel’s pages. Over the next two years he rewrites the novel and publishes it as his own, to wide acclaim. But persistent feelings of guilt lead him to confess his theft to an unlikely party, who leads others to the truth.

Luna, Phoenix, Queen tells its tale of artistic and marital betrayal in a chorus of voices. We hear from Barr as he becomes obsessed with Luna, a horrifically injured dog at a local shelter; from Dava as she meets Svetlana for the first time, on a transatlantic flight to Dublin; from Milo, Dava’s son, as he hides in the woods with Naomi, Svetlana’s daughter; from Svetlana, experiencing the loss of a relationship that ended before it could come to fruition; from Evie, Barr’s research assistant, who witnessed Dava’s last days at home with her husband; from James, the Penningtons’ younger son, who makes a startling discovery after his father’s death; and from Milo and Svetlana again, as they grieve the injustice of Barr’s theft and confront the devastation of Dava’s disease.

In a narrative that spans four decades and four thousand miles, Luna, Phoenix, Queen illuminates the power of storytelling and explores the terror of losing the ability to make sense of our world. It is a cry of rage against our vulnerability and helplessness; an acknowledgment of the mysteries beneath the familiar surface of our world; and ultimately, if unexpectedly, a radical testament to love in its many forms.

[Barbara]

A huge thank you to NetGalley and Knopf, Pantheon, Vintage, and Anchor for an ARC of LUNA, PHOENIX, QUEEN by Julie Orringer. Expected publication date is October 13, 2026.

Fans of literary fiction, mark your calendars. You do not want to miss this one.

I loved the way Orringer structures this novel. Told across eight linked chapters, the story shifts among key characters, with each chapter written in the second person. Every perspective moves the narrative forward while deepening our understanding of what has already occurred. Occasionally, Orringer revisits the same scene through another character’s eyes, revealing just how differently people can experience and interpret the same event. I found this structure particularly effective.

The novel begins with Barr Pennington, a novelist and writing professor at an unnamed Iowa university. His wife, Dava, a noted and beloved literature professor, is experiencing early-onset Alzheimer’s, and Barr is not coping well. He is also under intense pressure to produce another novel when he discovers something unexpected: a manuscript Dava had secretly written by hand on multiple yellow legal pads.

Dava never mentioned wanting to write a novel. Now her disease has progressed to the point that she cannot explain what she wrote or why she wrote it. No one else even knows the manuscript exists.

And Barr makes a terrible decision.

After the book becomes a bestseller and brings him the literary acclaim he craves, guilt begins to consume him. There is something almost Dostoyevskian about Barr’s psychological descent as success, deception, shame, and self-justification begin to distort his thinking.

Through multiple perspectives, Orringer gradually reveals Barr and Dava’s marriage, their two sons, and the other people intimately connected to the Pennington family. At a relatively brief 288 pages, LUNA, PHOENIX, QUEEN spans decades, taking us from the years when the children are in primary school into adulthood, when they must finally reckon with the past.

Orringer writes about Dava’s decline with tremendous compassion, allowing us to experience her increasing confusion from both Dava’s perspective and those of the people who love her. That same compassion extends to nearly every character, even Barr, who can be extraordinarily difficult to like. Orringer never excuses his choices, yet by the end, I found myself feeling sorrow for him.
And then there is the dog.

I don’t want to say too much about her because discovering her place in this story is part of its beauty. But for all the novel’s literary complexity, LUNA, PHOENIX, QUEEN is also a deeply moving exploration of the healing power of animals and the profound connections we form with them. Dog lovers, especially, may find the ending packs an emotional wallop.

Beautiful prose, inventive structure, morally complicated characters, and a story that rewards close reading.

Highly recommended for readers who love thoughtful, character-driven literary fiction.

[Debbie]

Dava Pennington is the picture of the perfect wife, professional and mother. Always there for her husband and children … until she isn’t. Dava, a successful professor, is slowly beginning to lose herself to the insidious creep of early Alzheimer's. But Dava has secrets which will not be brought to light until it is way too late to answer the many questions of the people who love her.

Her husband Barr Pennington has always depended on Dava to be his greatest fan, and on the surface, appears to take meticulous care of Dava as she becomes more and more incapacitated. Barr has secrets too, and as is the case with many narcissistic personalities, does not want people asking too many questions. He is working on his next great novel, his first receiving a prestigious international award. Now that Dava is in a care facility (a decision forced upon Barr by his boys). Ever aware of public perception, he visits Dava twice weekly, but lately he’s become fixated on rescuing a frail burn-wounded dog he calls Luna. Not particularly because he is a dog person, but because he is convinced that she speaks directly to him.

But someone IS watching and listening. Evie is Barr’s tattooed graduate assistant who is tasked with keeping his manuscripts catalogued and paperwork in order. It’s Evie who really sees how Barr cares for the people he “loves” and goes to great lengths to ensure that Barr does not get his hands on Luna. And then there is Luna/Phoenix/Queen … who in spite of her tremendous pain, continues to trust, love and constantly give.

If there is any lesson to be learned from this book it is that every one of us has a deep-seated desire to be known and to be loved. Orringer’s story had the ability to simultaneously infuriate and break my heart at the same time. Barr is a loathsome individual, Dava frustrating, for her years of self-denial, and her decision not to pursue her own happiness. It’s a story of both personal and professional betrayal and the profound effects on those who are left to pick up the pieces. The author’s writing is crisp, clear, and appeals to the senses of sight and smell. Her ability to bring multiple complex individuals to life is marvelous. Their stories float in my brain like cobwebs just out of reach. I have no doubt they will be there for a long time to remind me of this incredible book. 5 Stars.

Many, many thanks to NetGalley, Julie Orringer and the publisher, Alfred Knopf for the opportunity to read and express my opinion of this novel. All opinions expressed are my own.

[Paul Wagenbreth]

You’ll have to make it to the very end of Julie Orringer’s absorbing “Luna, Phoenix, Queen” to grasp the full significance of its peculiar title, which I’ll not give away other than to say that it has to do with a badly burned dog named Luna, whose distressed state – “one ear maimed, her entire left flank rough and raw and flecked with dark scabs” – is relatable enough for the novel’s Barr Pennington (“this creature,” he thinks of it, “who bore scars as he bore scars, who suffered as he’d suffered”) that he is considering adoption.
Nowhere near the direness of the dog's state, of course, his own (the animal is facing euthanization), though nevertheless of no small consequence for him, his professional disappointment over a novel of his not having been well-received and the literary world seemingly backing away from his “demographic,” as well as his distress over his fellow academic wife, Dava (not Dana, he keeps correcting people) being in a nursing home with Alzheimer’s.
Especially hard on him, her current state, with her mind “seemingly netted in fog,” what with how, in her more cognitively aware days, she’d been acute enough to hector him into reworking a story of his to where it went on to win an international fiction prize, which the beginning of the novel finds her going to Dublin to accept in his name when he is down with the flu.
Emblematic, indeed, her acceptance of the award for him, of the novel’s major issue of artistic appropriation, which asserts itself most prominently when, after she has had to go into the home, he finds hidden in their home a novel that she’d been working on – he’d known she’d been working on something, just not what – and, recognizing how good it is, he polishes it and submits the final product as his own, bringing undue critical acclaim for him.
More than simply an academic novel of seemingly limited appeal, though, Orringer’s work serves up a satisfyingly compelling story with richly developed characters, including a female professor of Russian studies whom Dava meets on her Dublin trip and with whom she ends up carrying on an affair and for whom the reader will come to feel as much empathy as for Dava when, during a breast cancer scare, she must undergo a daunting medical regimen which had me recalling how some viewers of the movie “The Exorcist” were more scared by the medical tests that the child was put through than by the demon.

[Mainlinebooker]

Julie Orringer’s Luna, Phoenix, Queen is an absorbing story that draws us deeply into the interior lives of two families, with an abused dog serving as a fulcrum for the central characters’ lives.
Dava is an English literature professor at an unnamed university, while her husband, Barr, is a novelist who has never quite achieved her professional standing. During a business trip, Dava meets Svetlana, a Russian professor, and gradually develops a romantic relationship with her—a relationship she conceals from her husband and children for nearly four decades.

As their relationship unfolds, Dava begins writing a novel on yellow legal pads, a work that mirrors her love for Svetlana and the life they have shared. But Dava is eventually diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer’s disease, and as her mind deteriorates, the novel is left fragmented and unfinished. Eventually, Barr places her in a memory-care facility. One day, however, he discovers her hidden manuscript. Convinced that it is brilliant, he reworks it and passes it off as his own, carrying the guilt of that decision for the rest of his life.

As time moves forward, we witness the profound effects of Dava’s illness and death on Svetlana, Barr, their children, and Svetlana’s daughter, Naomi, who essentially grew up as a friend of the family. Told through the voices of different characters, the novel portrays the devastating consequences of memory loss with remarkable sensitivity, showing how one person’s unraveling can reverberate throughout an entire family system.

At its heart, Luna, Phoenix, Queen is an exploration of all the different forms love can take—romantic love, marital love, parental love, friendship, loyalty, and even the complicated love that persists through betrayal and loss. In that sense, the novel feels both prescient and deeply timely.

Orringer’s characterization is exceptional, and her portrayal of memory, identity, and the bonds between people is incredibly moving. This is the kind of novel you want to hug tightly when you finish it. It would also make an excellent choice for a book club, with plenty to discuss about love, fidelity, memory, creativity, and the moral compromises we make for the people we care about.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC in return for an honest review.

[Tony]

Bear with me while I attempt to pull myself together after finishing Luna, Phoenix, Queen by Julie Orringer. Thank you Knopf for the review copy!
    Dava, a professor of English literature is unhappy in her marriage to Barr, professor of fiction writing, is secretly in love with Svetlana, a colleague. This secret relationship between the two women inspires Dava to write a fictional novel about two women who run a shelter for victims of domestic violence. The novel gets increasingly difficult for Dava to finish as she is losing focus and a test reveals she has early-onset Alzheimer's.
  After Dava is moved to a care facility, Barr discovers her manuscript, and deduces that it is about her relationship with Svetlana, reworks it, and publishes it as his own, to acclaim. Does his secret get discovered? I'm not giving anything away. 
  At the heart of it is Luna, a severely injured rescue dog that brilliantly connects everything in her own way. There is a passage at the very end of the dogs memories and it just brought everything home for me in the book and summed up so much of the overall theme (after I had a little sob fest at the smallest mention of a particular conversation between two of the cast) So so smart and well done and I want everyone to read this when it comes out in October!
   But JULIE! This book. Your writing, your characters! Man did so much hit so close to home. This is probably the most realistic portrayal of humans reacting in the situations they are placed in as I have ever come across. I have seen more of the scenes in this novel play out in real life than one would think. How did you do this?! Lol 
   The way they all interact with one another and have a sense of what is going on around them and these fibers are all woven together as a family, even though it goes unspoken felt like a masterclass in portrayal of what it is to love and care for someone on different levels. What we do for and the lengths we go to for people. The small gestures and little behaviors that really cinch it all for me in making them feel fully real and human. I know I haven't given this book full justice with my thoughts as I have so many swimming in my head.

[Randy]

Julie Orringer’s latest—the cryptically titled “Luna Phoenix Queen”—centers on a shocking literary theft. Barr and Dava Pennington are college professors at a Midwestern university: novelist Barr shepherds would-be writers and Dava teaches English lit.

When Dava develops early onset Alzheimer’s, Barr becomes her caregiver, tending to her for years before reluctantly moving Dava to a memory care facility. One day, Barr discovers a hidden trove of yellow legal pads compiling Dava’s handwritten semi-autobiographical novel based on a longstanding secret love affair she had with Svetlana, a Russian studies teacher. Stunned, angry, hurt, and envious, Barr rewrites Dava’s novel and publishes it under his own name, confident that Dava will never know what he’s done. Enjoying the ensuing accolades while grappling with guilt, Barr is drawn to a badly-burned shelter dog named Luna.

While “Luna Phoenix Queen” is a story about people coping with love, compassion, grief, jealousy, betrayal, and other human emotions, the dog will also play a key role as the tale unfolds. Writers writing about writers writing often results in unappetizingly insular books, but Orringer’s plot is less concerned with the literary process than the lives of the various characters, who include Evie, a struggling twentysomething student hired by Barr as an assistant; Dava and Barr’s two sons, asthmatic Milo and bad seed James; and Svetlana’s somewhat withdrawn daughter Naomi.
Over the course of four decades, their stories are told, alternating between past and present and seen from different characters’ perspectives.

That may sound complicated, but Orringer’s writing style is fairly straightforward, ensuring a wider readership for what could easily be a popular book club selection. Granted, some late Capra-esque elements feel a bit contrived, but ultimately, this is an engaging novel about love in all its fractured nature (and a dog!). Recommended. Thanks to NetGalley and Knopf for providing an advance reader copy.

[Andrea]

I received this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Where to begin?! This is a complex, multi-layered, uneven novel, spanning four decades. Beautifully written [in parts], but somehow not enough. I really liked Orringer's The Invisible Bridge so was optimistic.

"Dava and Barr Pennington, professors at a Midwestern university, both harbor potent secrets. Fiction writing is his specialty, English literature is hers. But Dava is unhappy in their marriage, and secretly in love with a colleague, Svetlana White..." Dava has early-onset Alzheimer's and Barr places her in a memory-care facility. He discovers a manuscript she has been writing in secret and "... he reads [it] with envy, and then with anger, as he extrapolates his wife’s affair from the relationship described in the novel’s pages. Over the next two years he rewrites the novel and publishes it as his own, to wide acclaim."

He visits an animal shelter and becomes obsesssed with a dog, Luna, who has been injured in a fire. However, before he can adopt her, his assistant, Evie, does and renames her Luna. [Much about Evie follows] Luna is the most likeable character!

Barr and Dava have two sons, Milo and James who play a larger role in the novel towards the end. Svetlana has a daughter, Naomi, who Milo has been obsessed with since they were children [and also factors in more at the end]. None of the characters are particularly likeable but Barr is probably the worst IMHO.

There is infidelity, hidden lesbianism [to some extent], betrayal, dysfunctional families. Depressing--not just the slide into dementia.

There were phrases and descriptions that just wowed me, but not enough to really "like" this book.

To wit:
"rows of tight-set houses, imperfect teeth in the mouth of the town"
"afternoon had advanced into blue shadows"
"Phoenix had insisted her head"
"a new storm knit itself from teh charcoal-colored wool above the river"

3.5, not rounding up as often I had to push myself to read.

[Janine]

An intense beautifully written novel with themes of artistic betrayal, the devastating effects of memory loss and the power of storytelling.

Dava Pennington is a middle-aged professor of English literature teaching in a Midwest College, and living with her husband, Barr. Dava feels lost and her memories are drifting (“A fog-laced wind seemed to blow through her brain . . . .”) when she’s diagnosed with early Alzheimer’s. Her husband moves her to a memory care facility. He contemplates getting a dog but soon discovers a manuscript written by Dava that’s brilliant but also hinting of an affair with a colleague, Svetlana White. In anger, Barr writes a novel, The Refuge, to acclaim using that novel. Barr tells no one but Luna, a dog from the shelter who survived a house fire who is later adopted by his assistant, Evie, and renamed Phoenix. Complications ensue when Barr and Dava’s sons reach out to Svetlana to learn more about their mother.

The novel spans four decades and four thousand miles. We hear from many of the characters: Barr as he becomes obsessed with Luna; Dava as she meets Svetlana; Milo, Dava’s son, as he hides in the woods with Naomi, Svetlana’s daughter; Evie who sees Dava on her last day at home; James, Dava’s son, who uncovers his father’s secret; and then again from Milo and Naomi. All grieve the terrible injustice done to Dava as well as her disease. We sense their helplessness and rage in seeing how a vulnerable person can be taken advantage of.

This is definitely a complex novel as are Ottinger’s other ones but it’s beautifully executed. The storytelling of Dava’s life is tender, sad, and poignant but the ending where Luna-Phoenix has been restored to her true name (Queen) and is with Dava and Svetlana is the best. This book was five stars for me for many of the foregoing reasons. Most of all it was a pleasure to read. Pay attention to the dog!

This is a book to be savored in reading and for readers who enjoy a wonderfully told story.

My thanks to NetGalley and Knopf for granting me access to the wonderful book.

[Amber Statham]

What a fantastic novel! This story is a fast read, and is told from multiple POVs; each chapter is dedicated to a different character. I enjoyed that the author did this, because since this story is almost more a character study than fulfilling a plot, each character’s chapters were able to reveal more about the OTHER characters than themselves.

Barr and Dava, two professors who also write novels, are married with two sons. Dava ends up getting early onset Alzheimer’s, and as such ends up deteriorating to a point of needing full time care within a home. After she is moved out of their house, Barr discovers Dava’s secret manuscript, in which she has revealed a long affair with another professor at the university, Svetlana. Angry, Barr transcribes the yellow legal pad manuscript into a word document and begins editing the story as he goes, taking out the parts he doesn’t like and watering it down. Then he presents it as his own and the novel is published. And so the literary theft is complete.

Afterwards is the discovery of a shelter dog that Barr connects with, who temporarily tempers his greed, guilt, and grief. He believes the dog speaks to him, and decides that maybe he is a dog person and should adopt her. He doesn’t end up adopting the dog before someone else does (His research assistant, who has seen firsthand how the narcissistic Barr “cares” for the things he loves) and what follows is Barr’s descent into obsession, paranoia, and restlessness.

This dog is the glue that holds these characters together in this story and impacts every single one of them in some way within the web that the author creates. This story is about love, grief, coping, jealousy, betrayal, and how the dog ties them all together in the present. It sounds complicated but it was really a straightforward telling, and I highly recommend it!

Thank you to NetGalley, Knopf, and the author for providing an advanced reader copy in exchange for my honest review.

[mostlybookstuff]

Barr Pennington is cooked. He knew it the moment Luna looked him in the eye and said she smelled meat. Luna is a dog, by the way. #LUNAPHOENIXQUEEN by #julieorringer follows the “emergency egress” of a woman who travels to Dublin to accept a literary prize on behalf of her husband and then falls in love with her best friend. This slip from the established and accepted, from placing the demands of her husband and children above her own, brings Dava unparalleled joy even as she begins to experience the charred ruins of memory loss. It’s not too long before Svetlana stops arguing with Dava about their future when all that remains is the present. Meanwhile, Barr is weary from playing the caretaker. When he discovers Dava’s manuscript detailing her love affair, he publishes it under his name to great acclaim. The accolades mean so much and the proceeds have since helped tremendously with their debt. Barr has always believed that he was meant for an exceptional life. Was this not a confirmation of that truth?

A research assistant adopts a dog and is confronted with how precarious her life is. Evie left California for Illinois because her father is dying and her mother cannot keep up with the medical bills. There is also a missing brother that she ought to do something about. Alas, Evie spends her days running errands for Professor Pennington while trying to complete her thesis. When she finally requests what she is owed, Evie tumbles into an “emergency egress” of her own. I liked how the dog can represent blinding clarity to one character and uncertainty for another. Besides symbolism, I also appreciated references to classic novels, from Dava purchasing Night and Day by Virginia Woolf at the airport bookstore to the late-night sledding scene which brought to mind Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton. This one is for all the bookish #dogue lovers out there. Thanks so much to @aaknopf for sending me this ARC. #LUNAPHOENIXQUEEN comes out 10/13/2026.

[Jessica]

I went into this novel without much backstory. The basic description sounded like a literary work I might enjoy, so I was grateful to receive the invitation to review it. I did not even understand the title until well into the read, when a major plot point made it clear. If possible, I recommend that experience. This is a story that is best to let unfold.

The novel centers around a couple, Dara and Barr Pennington, both of whom are professors at a school in the Midwest. Barr writes fiction while Dara focuses on English literature. Their long marriage has issues, some related to others in their orbit, some related to their work, and some related to her early-onset Alzheimer’s diagnosis. When she is moved to a memory care facility, he makes choices that upend everyone, including himself.

One of my favorite things about this novel was its unique structure. Broken into 8 what almost feels like eight short stories, each takes a different character’s point of view. The reader moves forward and backward in time in each part, allowing us deep character insight and different perspectives on events. The sections interconnect beautifully within the storyline. Threaded through them all is an injured rescue dog, who makes a profound and unique impact on each of the characters’ lives.

I enjoyed this immersive reading experience so much. This novel themes of betrayal, ownership of one’s work, and the various ways that we love and care for each other are woven throughout. Though the stories are fully different, the overall themes are reminiscent of another wonderful literary novel published in 2025, What We Can Know by Ian McEwan. If you are a fan of that work, or literary fiction with a unique structure, I recommend Luna, Phoenix, Queen. 4+ stars. Thanks to Knopf, Pantheon, Vintage, and Anchor, Julie Orringer, and NetGalley for providing this copy of Luna, Phoenix, Queen for review consideration. All opinions are my own.

[Castille]

Unapologetically literary, this book is an exquisite exploration of loss, grief, and betrayal. It delves deep into human cruelty, while simultaneously celebrating our enduring capacity to love and create in the face of profound difficulties.

Orringer’s narrative structure here is brilliant, though I suspect certain readers will find it jarring and possibly emotionally unsatisfying. The novel operates almost like a collection of short stories strung together, moving fluidly between different timelines and characters' points of view. What may seem disparate or ancillary at first winds up becoming relevant later, which gives the book a sense not just of cohesion but also of fate. I often find short story collections frustrating because it feels like you are forced to leave a narrative behind right when it’s getting good. Here, however, the overarching thread is so strong that it feels like you are simply diving directly into the most vital, important parts of what has brought these characters into each other's lives and how they've affected each other.

This approach brilliantly sidesteps a common pitfall I have with literary fiction: getting lost or bored due to slow pacing and a lack of character connection. Instead, with each chapter, we are invited deeper into their respective worlds. I loved watching these characters exist alongside each other—sharing intersecting moments, yet experiencing wholly different internal realities.

The greatest unifying thread is how Luna/Phoenix/Queen acts as a central catalyst for change across the board. This specific device lends a Classical feeling to a novel that is otherwise wholly contemporary, elevating the entire experience and lending it an almost magical quality, or like there's some larger universal force looming over it all.

[Angie Boyter]

Lovely, graphic writing ,,, and a dog!
The publisher’s writeup gives a very full description of this book, so I will not add more.
The writing in the book is wonderful, and my kindle is FULL of passages underlined for that reason. It is graphic, and I envision everything. I also get a good feeling for the characters. I enjoyed the first chapter so much that I made a note that I was ready to give the book five stars already!
Unfortunately there were several aspects of the book that prevented me from enjoying it as much as I had expected, especially after I read that excellent first chapter. I wish the rest of the book had been as good!
Since the book’s title is the dog’s name(s), I thought Luna/Phoenix/Queen would be more prominent in the book. She is a wonderful character, and I admired Pennington for adopting a seriously damaged and scarred dog. I wanted to hear more about her.
A more serious problem for me, though, was the fact that each chapter is from the perspective of a different character and a different era. There were too many such transitions, and it broke up the unity of the book.
In addition, there were simply too many gay characters to be fully credible. It is relevant and interesting for Dava to be lesbian and, therefore, to know other lesbian people and perhaps gay men, but the prevalence does not ring believable.
Finally, all’s well that ends well for the characters, but I found the ending a bit disappointing even though Luna plays a role that gave me a closing smile.
I received an advance review copy of Luna Phoenix Queen from NetGalley and Alfred A,Knopf .

[Lisa]

In Luna, Phoenix, Queen, each member of a married couple, both literature professors and writers, commits the worst of betrayals. Dava carries on a years-long affair with a colleague, right under her husband's nose. And her husband Barr steals her novel manuscript, which is a fictionalized story about her affair, and publishes it as his own.

What makes it even more interesting is that Dava has Alzheimer's, so once Barr finds out about her affair and betrays her, her disease has progressed too far for her to be able to communicate with anyone.

The story is told through a multitude of voices - Barr, her lover Svetlana, their children, and Barr's assistant Evie - as they circle around the truth, each coming to it from their own perspective. A burned rescue dog connects their stories and leads them to self-discovery.

The book is very well observed. I know a lot of reviewers say this but there's really no other way to put it. The care that the author put into the details makes the characters all feel very real and human. They are each flawed in their own way, and Dava's slow decline into confusion is heartbreaking.

Luna, Phoenix, Queen has all the makings of a perfect book for me: emotional literary fiction about relationships, memory, and storytelling. But other than hating Barr, I didn't feel a strong emotional connection to any of the characters, so I didn't love it as much as I was hoping to.

Thank you to Knopf and NetGalley for the ARC. All opinions are my own.

Read more of my reviews at www.fogfiction.com or on Instagram @fogfiction.

[Ann]

This lovely novel is about many aspects of life, but for me it was overwhelmingly about Alzheimer’s and the way the tentacles of that disease permeate every facet of life. Husbands, sons and lovers are all irrevocably affected and, of course, all respond differently to this tragic illness.
Dava is a professor, a mother of two sons, and a wife. She also is in love with another woman (Svetlana). Dava becomes ill with early onset Alzheimer’s, and the novel follows her mental and physical decline through the eyes of her family members and Svetlana. Each person has a lengthy chapter describing their life and the effect of Dava’s illness on them.
There are betrayals. Dava remains married while being in love with Svetlana. There is also a literary betrayal, which becomes an important plot issue. But best of all, there is a dog. She is wounded and ugly, but she offers deep love to those who need it most.
Julie Orringer masterfully captured the tragedy of Alzheimer’s: from the heartbreak of losing mental capacity to the everyday tasks of caring for a person who cannot care for themselves. She also wonderfully explored family and relationship dynamics. This novel will linger with me as an outstanding portrayal of the effect of a terrible disease not only on the patient, but also on every person whose life is affected but the patient’s illness. But above all, I will remember the dog and the way in which Julie Orringer absolutely, totally “got” dogs and their relationship with humans.

[Alisa]

Luna, Phoenix, Queen by Julie Orringer is a tale about family and what makes one. It is about pets and who “owns” who. It is also about a dog with three names.

Dava and Barr are both professors and writers. They are married and have two boys together. Dave, however, has a longtime lover who also happens to be a professor at the same university. No one notices the affair because Dava’s lover is a woman (like herself) and in the eighties and nineties it was generally supposed that everyone was straight.

Dava was a stellar writer but she was always there to support Barr in his work. She mostly outshined him but being a woman and principally taking care of the family, she took a back seat to him. Dava spent her evenings at home in her office writing a novel, but did not tell anyone and hid it in a hole in the wall on multiple yellow note pads. When Dava was struck with Alzheimer’s disease, her writing became erratic but she wrote for herself. It was about her lover and her life and she needed to hide the facts of that relationship.

Eventually, Barr was living alone because Dava went into a care home. Barr heard about a dog that had been badly burned in a house fire and she was taken to the local do shelter. Barr became obsessed with her, the shelter called her Luna.

The dog weaves in and out of the family’s world in unexpected ways. Read this book if you like dogs, but you don’t need to like dogs to enjoy this book.

Thank you, Netgalley, for the prepublication copy to read and review.

[Rebecca]

Review of advance copy received from NetGalley

This was one of the most unique novels I’ve read in a while — in all the best ways. After moving his wife, who has Alzheimer’s, into a memory care facility, Barr discovers her manuscript scrawled on stacks of legal pads. The novel in progress tells the story of her affair with her colleague and best friend. Both angered and in awe of how good the manuscript is, Barr rewrites the story and publishes it as his own, and it’s a hit. He confesses what he did to a shelter dog, who leads others to the truth. Despite the interesting plot, the novel itself is highly interior versus plot-driven, and the characters are well-developed.

The book’s structure stands out the most, consisting of only eight chapters — each from a different character’s third-person point of view. The story unfolds across these chapters but doubles back on some key events to provide a different perspective. (I’m considering a deeper dive into this craft choice for my Read Like a Writer series — stay tuned!)

At its core, it’s a story about rising above difficult times and finding peace, even amidst the toughest of circumstances, with the support of others and love in its many forms.

TL;DR: It’s a unique and beautiful novel that will stir up a range of emotions. Keep a box of tissues nearby.

[k mandra]

This is a story of a couple--two professors. Although HE is the writing professor, SHE writes a stellar novel. She develops early onset Alzheimers and her hubby finds her writing, edits and revises it, and puts his own name on the novel. The story unfolds by jumping back and forth between points of view over decades. Sometimes the POV swtiches by chapter, and sometimes there are jarring changes within a chapter and the reader feels a disconnect while trying to adjust from James to Milo, etc.
I felt the author tried far too hard to be artsy and poetic. One strange example: "the mole-starred skies of their bodies" was over the top. Some of the sentence structure and offbeat clauses were strange. I was really quite bored through most of the book and found the existential ramblings, relentless descriptions and character mind dumps to be grating. The title focuses on the dog and that dog is actually a theme yet, the dog is not at all central to the story and should have been woven into it more. I do not recommend this title. If I hadn't agreed to review the book in its ARC form, it would have been a DNF.

[Holly]

So, a little slow and hard to get into at the beginning, but by the midpoint, I was hooked and really wanted to know what will happen. Title character is a DOG (which I love!) and touches the lives of many others in the book in ways that borders on anthropomorphism and/or magical realism. The story follows a married couple, Barr and Dava Pennington, both professors, and their sons. He is a creative writer/novelist (with varying success), she is more in the literary criticism and literature realm. She is diagnosed with early onset Alzheimers very soon into the book and the novel follows the progression of her cognitive disease and care, as well as a long partnership with a colleague that exists alongside her marriage. It follows what Dava's family learns about her work as her condition declines and the decisions they make to honor her talent. Lots of intriguing characters, themes of identity, love, family, intellectual property, boundaries, and loyalty. Good writing, compelling story, but despite a few interesting and kind of unexpected twists, I felt a little down at the end with so much unresolved with the other main characters.

[Armando Ramirez]

Luna, Phoenix, Queen by Julie Orringer is a good book; but for me, it was not the spellbinding tour de force I hoped it would be.
At its heart, this is a story about love, infidelity, deception, and the complicated choices people make when desire and loyalty collide. Orringer writes with care, and there is certainly emotional depth in the relationships and betrayals at the center of the novel. I can see why some readers may connect with its quieter, more reflective approach.
Unfortunately, I found the reading experience very dry and, at times, boring. The story never fully pulled me in, and the pacing felt too slow for the level of emotional drama on the page. I kept waiting for the book to become more gripping or immersive, but it never quite got there for me.
Honestly, I was more interested in Luna than the rest of the story. She was the character who held my attention and made me want to keep reading, even when the novel itself began to feel like a slog.
Overall, this is a well-written book with an interesting premise and worthwhile themes, but it was not a standout for me. A solid 3-star read: good, but far from unforgettable.

[Jenna Golden]

Luna, Phoenix, Queen weaves together a few different storylines, all sharing one common thread: a woman named Dava who is losing her faculties to early-onset Alzheimer's. We start with Dava and her husband Barr who are professors with two sons. Dava has been secretly having an affair with a fellow female professor named Svetlana while her forgetfulness starts to surface. As Dava spirals into decline, her husband Barr moves her into a facility in order to receive proper care. In his loneliness, he visits an animal shelter and develops a relationship with a severely burned dog named Luna who was almost killed in a house fire. The book looks backward at Dava's time with Barr and Svetlana, and also moves to the present day as they both try to care for her during this late-stage downturn. The book is brutal and honest about love and loss, but it also asks a lot of questions about what we can expect from people who lose their mental capacity. And dogs... dogs are special and feeling creatures. It's a beautiful and emotional book. Luna, Phoenix, Queen comes out on October 13th.