Wilson, Antoine

Antoine Wilson is the author of the novels Panorama City and The Interloper. His work has appeared in The Paris Review, StoryQuarterly, Best New American Voices, and the Los Angeles Times, among other publications. He is a contributing editor of A Public Space. In a first-class lounge at JFK airport, the narrator in Mouth to Mouth: A Novel (Avid Reader Press/Simon & Schuster) listens as Jeff Cook, a former classmate, shares the story of his adult life – a life that changed course some years before, the moment he resuscitated a drowning man. After that morning on the beach, Jeff wants to learn more about the man whose life he had saved. But are we agents of our fate – or are we its pawns? He discovers that the man is renowned art dealer Francis Arsenault, and Jeff begins to secretly visit his Beverly Hills gallery. While Francis does not seem to recognize him as the man who saved his life, he nevertheless casts his eye on Jeff, sees something worthy, and takes the younger man under his wing. The paths of the two men come together and diverge in dizzying ways until the novel’s staggering ending.