The New Couple in 5B

Compare and contrast Paul Winter and Chad Lowan, the murderous husbands at the heart of the novel. How does the novel explain their similarities? Given that roughly 60 years elapse between the two storylines, what has and has not changed about the culture that gives rise to male violence against women?

Many of the novel’s primary characters—including Rosie, Willa, Chad, and Dana—are artists. How are art and creativity represented in the novel? How does art serve as a means to process emotionally difficult experiences?

How does New York City act as a character in the novel? How do the city’s activity and anonymity influence the action? Does the Windermere serve as a microcosm of New York? If so, what aspects of the city’s culture does it highlight?

Explore representations of magic and the supernatural in The New Couple in 5B. How do ghosts, hauntings, charms, and fortune-telling affect the action of the novel? How do they deepen the novel’s exploration of individual and collective memory?

Abi Bekiri and Ella Aldridge are the only characters to appear in both the 1963 narrative and the present-day narrative. How do their depictions differ across these two arcs?

How does Lisa Unger employ and/or subvert the genre expectations of the murder mysteries? What similarities and contrasts does she draw between mystery fiction and the true crime stories that Rosie writes?

How does the Windermere act as a character in the novel? How does the building shape the characters’ motivations and decisions? Does the Windermere have motivations of its own?

How does the structure of the novel help to build suspense? Consider the use of the 1963 narrative arc and the inclusion of a prologue written in the first person.