The main character, Nora (reference to A Doll's House?) is a third grade teacher who bemoans the fact that she is just so ordinary. Her aspirations to be an artist were thwarted by her parents when she was deciding where to go to college.
Nora is taken into the folds of a European family, the Shahids, who comes to Cambridge for a year with their son, who enrolls in Nora's class. His father is Lebanese scholar and his mother an Italian artist of some note. They are in Cambridge for a year.
Nora falls in love with each of them and becomes obsessed with the family - each of them - for different reasons.
Sirena, the artist, mother of Reza and wife of Skandar, asks a lot of Nora, and she acquiesces each time. They share a studio together and encourage each other's art.
This is a psychological thriller with a very surprise ending. It's worth the read, for sure, and makes me want to read Messud's other books.
