John Lanchester's New Novel Asks How Well We Know Our Loved Ones

John Lanchester, born in Hamburg in 1962, has published a new novel titled "Das habe ich wegen dir getan." The book centers on Kate, a former art historian who was married for 30 years to an architect named Jack. The couple had a functioning, deliberately childless marriage. Jack dies unexpectedly of heart failure. Afterwards, Kate happens upon pages written by her husband that abruptly call into question the image she had formed of him over three decades of shared life, and ultimately leave her profoundly shaken. The novel reveals that her husband not only cheated on her but also betrayed the intimate codes of their relationship. Lanchester is the author of the episodic novel "Kapital" (2012). The narrative gradually pushes a question into its center that proves increasingly unsettling for Kate: how well do we know the person with whom we share, or have shared, our life?