Jane and Dan at the End of the World

January 1, 2025

In Oakley's (The Mostly True Story of Tanner & Louise, a LibraryReads pick) latest, novelist Jane is in an unhappy marriage, but when she and her husband go out to celebrate their 19th anniversary, they find themselves in a hostage situation straight out of one of her books. As Jane and Dan try to survive the night, they might just fall back in love along the way. Prepub Alert.

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January 6, 2025
Oakley (The Mostly True Story of Tanner & Louise) explores midlife dissatisfaction in this disappointing tale of a married couple’s date night gone wrong. To celebrate 20 years of marriage, Jane and Dan stray from their usual anniversary dinner at Macaroni Grill to dine at the world-famous La Fin Du Monde, a choice far above their pay grades as a failed writer and podiatrist, respectively. Jane, certain that Dan is cheating on her and unfulfilled as a mother of two teenagers, suggests they get a divorce. Before he can respond, the restaurant is invaded by a group of masked ecoterrorists. It turns out the group is targeting a billionaire tech tycoon who’s on his way there to meet his wife, which means everyone has to wait. Jane realizes two things: first, the situation is eerily similar to the plot of her poorly received book, Tea Is for Terror, and second, one of the terrorists is her teenage daughter, Sissy, whose voice she and Dan recognize. The plot twists become increasingly far-fetched as the narrative veers from the initial commentary on capitalism and environmental issues to humdrum depictions of marital woes brought about by Jane’s discovery of the truth behind her suspicions about Dan. It’s a miss. Agent: Stephanie Kip Rostan, Levine Greenberg Rostan.

Starred review from March 1, 2025
Jane Brooks' first (and last) book, Tea Is for Terror, came out six years ago and wasn't particularly a hit, and she's spent her time raising her now-teenage children, Sissy and Josh. For their nineteenth anniversary, she and her podiatrist husband, Dan, have dinner at the ultra-exclusive restaurant, La Fin du Monde, because Dan won a reservation (not including the price of dinner, alas). Jane intends to ask Dan for a divorce at dinner, and she does, but immediately afterwards, the restaurant is taken over by a band of environmental activists, who are there to demand money and reparations from a billionaire who's supposed to be dining there. As things go awry, though, it becomes clear to Jane that the activists (terrorists?) are using the plot of her book as a game plan. On one hand, she's thrilled someone read the book; on the other, the book ends in tragedy, and things don't look good for her and Dan. Oakley's latest (after The Mostly True Story of Tanner & Louise, 2023) is an inventive marriage-in-trouble story that, as details are revealed more or less chronologically, skewers ultra-wealth, climate anxiety, and book publishing. A hilarious, wonderfully moving family story.

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Starred review from March 15, 2025
When dinner at California's fanciest restaurant turns into a hostage situation... Oakley loves an unlikely premise, but she's outdone herself in her sixth novel, reviving the ambitions of her failed-novelist heroine with a truly wild series of events. The book is set during a single evening at an ultra-high-end restaurant called La Fin du Monde, located on a California coastal cliff. Its "million-dollar view" is upstaged by its $8.4 million dessert, which includes a diamond bracelet "and has famously been ordered only once, by a New York Yankees player for his wife, the week after his sext messages with a Southwest flight attendant went viral." (Funny, culturally clued-in asides are thick on the ground.) Jane and Dan end up celebrating their 19th anniversary at this palace of excess when he wins a voucher he thinks is for a free dinner but actually only entitles him to make a reservation. Sadly, Jane's planning to ask him for a divorce, partly because of some texts she saw on his phone but more because she's just so bored with her life. But the boredom's about to be over. Dan and Jane are barely through their first course (claw-shaped seafood concoctions that look "like they harvested them out of Sigourney Weaver's stomach") when a bunch of people in masks carrying assault rifles pour into the dining room. "Jane is no gun expert, but she did research various military-grade weapons when she was writing her novelTea Is for Terror, about an evil gang taking over a high-end teahouse in London and holding everyone hostage andoh dear God." Yes, somehow the leader of the climate activists is one of the six people who read Jane's novel--and the evening has many other surprises in store. Though the change in temperature of Jane and Dan's marriage is not the biggest one, it's nonetheless relatable and sweet. (Perhaps Oakley is celebrating the 24th anniversary of Ann Patchett'sBel Canto, which also includes a love story? Fans of that book will enjoy the connection.) As much fun as you'll ever have with middle-aged marriage and ecoterrorism.

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