Lookout

January 30, 2023
Byl’s slow-burning and poignant debut novel (after the memoir Dirt Work) follows a Montana family across three decades. Josiah Kinzler inherits a hardware business near Glacier National Park in 1984, where he and his wife, Margaret, raise their two daughters, beautiful Louisa and tomboyish Cody. In vignettes, Byl unspools Cody’s coming-of-age and Josiah’s uneasy relationship to the small town. Josiah, secretly gay and dogged by depression, moves out of the family home in 1989 into a neighboring cabin, where he builds furniture and has a tryst with his male apprentice. While Louisa is away at college in 1993, Margaret’s brother dies of AIDS, and in 1996, Cody, now a hotshot fire crew member, helps Josiah after he shatters his leg at work. As Cody settles into adult life with a boyfriend and Louisa gets married, Josiah dies in a car accident. Over the next 10 years, Cody’s grief pushes her to confront the open secret of Josiah’s sexuality and uncover the full circumstances of his death. Via letters discovered by Cody, revelations from a mean-spirited neighbor, and touching scenes from Josiah’s point of view, Bly gently excavates Josiah’s complicated interior life. Readers will find much to savor. Agent: Kate Garrick, Sally Literary Management.