Reading order
| # | Title | Published | Author | Buy on Amazon |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Nobody Is Ever Missing | 2014 | Catherine Lacey | Buy |
| 2 | The Answers | 2017 | Catherine Lacey | Buy |
| 3 | Pew | 2020 | Catherine Lacey | Buy |
| 4 | Biography of X | 2023 | Catherine Lacey | Buy |
| 5 | The Möbius Book | 2025 | Catherine Lacey | Buy |
Catherine Lacey’s standalone novels have established her as one of the more distinctive voices in contemporary American fiction. Her debut, “Nobody Is Ever Missing” (2014), follows a woman who abandons her ordinary life for an impulsive trip to New Zealand. “The Answers” (2017) imagines a strange experiment where a man hires women to fulfill different emotional roles in his life. “Pew” (2020) centers on a figure of unknown identity found in a Southern church, using the ambiguity of the narrator to examine how communities respond to the unfamiliar.
“Biography of X” (2023) marked a shift in scale and ambition, presenting an alternate American history through the lens of a widow researching her late wife’s mysterious past. Her forthcoming “The Mobius Book” (2025) continues her pattern of formal experimentation. Each novel operates on its own terms, using different narrative strategies while returning to Lacey’s core preoccupations: how people construct identity, how intimacy works and fails, and what remains unknowable about the people closest to us.