Fiction Mouth to Mouth

Antoine Wilson: Atlantic Books, $28

This small book is set over just one conversation between old university classmates who meet by chance at the airport while waiting for the same delayed flight. Jeff, charismatic and successful, declares their meeting “serendipitous” and in the first-class lounge begins to tell the story of his success – a confession he says he has never before told – beginning when he saved a man from drowning. The rescued man, Francis, a successful art dealer, seems to have no recollection of Jeff. But Jeff, both traumatised by the incident and curious, fixates on Francis and, without revealing himself, becomes more and more involved in his life. It’s an intriguing and increasingly disturbing story with a sharp kick of an ending. ELISSA LAWRENCE