Sink or Swim.

BOOKS & the ARTS EMMA CLINE'S NEW NOVEL, THE GUEST, OPENS WITH Alex, a 22-year-old woman, getting ready to dive into the warm waters of the Atlantic Ocean. In The Guest, Cline does a pitch-perfect job of keeping Alex's understanding of herself in sync with the reader's. Throughout the novel, Jack is reading Siddhartha, but it is Alex who wanders like a monk, swimming in pools of enlightenment and taking only what she needs. Not long after, Simon invites Alex to spend August with him, to stay through the month until his annual Labor Day bash. [Extracted from the article]