SUPER HOST

In Russo’s charming and poignant debut, a washed-up painter renting out his West London home discovers his guests may hold the key to resolving his midlife crisis.

With his career and marriage at dead ends, 50ish Bennett Driscoll’s life has come to a standstill. Once a Turner Prize–nominated rising star, he can no longer call himself a full-time artist; his paintings haven’t sold in two years, his gallery dropped him in favor of dead clients, and Eliza, his ex-wife (and primary breadwinner), left him for a hedge fund manager in New York. To make ends meet, Bennett has moved into the studio in his back garden and, much to his 19-year-old daughter Mia’s mortification, now rents his Chiswick house on the popular vacation-rental site AirBed. Instead of reading critiques of his art, he eagerly pours over his AirBed reviews as a “Super Host." But encounters with three different tenants may set the isolated Bennett back on the path to getting unstuck as an artist and as a man. Twentysomething New Yorker Alicia arrives alone, after her friends back out of the trip, hoping to reconnect with old London acquaintances. Artist Emma is also American, but her British husband has left her alone while he tries to get his brother into rehab. Diagnosed with obsessive-compulsive disorder, Emma struggles to work on her drawings despite her conviction that Bennett is spying on her. Finally there is Kirstie from Devon, who masks the trauma of her recent divorce under a veneer of sexy good cheer. Russo’s lively narrative alternates between Bennett’s and the women’s perspectives, but it's a bit of a disappointment when Alicia and Emma check out with their stories left unresolved. Likewise, the self-absorbed hero’s indecisiveness becomes a bit wearying. Still, the author writes with warm sympathy and humor.

A treat for fans of Nick Hornby and Tom Perrotta.