Briefly, A Delicious Life has been on my radar for years—a literary novel with a sapphic ghost main character? I’m listening. But it made its way to the top of my TBR after I read and loved Nell Stevens’s 2025 release, The Original. This one follows Blanca, who died when she was 14 years old in 1473—almost 400 years ago. Since then, she’s been haunting the village she died in, observing the lives of her descendants. When the writer George Sand, her lover Frederic Chopin, and her children move to town, Blanca becomes enthralled with George, longing for a woman who very literally doesn’t know she exists.
This is a slow-paced character study: Blanca can’t interact with anyone, other than being able to see into people’s memories, so the majority of the narration is her thought process. Because it’s so beautifully written, though, it worked for me. I was also invested in learning more about Blanca’s life and how she died, which unfolds over the course of the novel.
Both Blanca and George Sand are bisexual, and both have mostly been with men—but it’s their relationships with women that truly upend their lives. George Sand and her family only stay in Mallorca for a few months, where they are isolated by the community who judge George’s gender non-conformity and Chopin’s illness. This was supposed to be an escape for them: a sunny vacation to help Chopin’s health. Instead, it’s cold and damp, Chopin’s piano hasn’t arrived, and the locals hate them. The children are not adjusting well, and one resents Chopin for getting their mother’s attention. Between this and Blanca’s unrequited affection for George, a quiet desperation suffuses the novel.
I always find it difficult to recommend a book like this: do you want to read a beautifully melancholic story where not much happens? But sometimes, that’s exactly what I’m looking for, and this was the perfect read when I wanted to gaze forlornly out the window at the rain between chapters. The Original made my top reads of the year, so I look forward to whatever Nell Stevens writes next.
