Mayluna

The novel alternates between two narrators. Carter Wills, lead singer of the fictional British alternative rock band Mayluna, gives a revealing interview to journalist Michael aboard the band's private jet en route from Mexico City to Rio de Janeiro. Meanwhile, Evie, a middle-aged woman in Pennsylvania, reveals a long-hidden past to her grown children, Lainey and Lucas, after the funeral of her husband, Steve Hutchinson. The two accounts tell the story of a love affair that shaped an iconic album and a life lived in secret.

Carter grew up in Yorkshire, England, with a rough, absent father and a gentle mother who taught him guitar. His older brother, Jacob, was the band's original lead singer but fell into drug use alongside lead guitarist Alex Winters. After a massive fight, the band temporarily split. Jacob then overdosed at a flat in Brixton, where a fire broke out and killed him. Consumed with guilt, Carter sank into depression before returning to drummer Tommy Rollins with new songs and taking over as vocalist. The reconstituted band made a pact to focus solely on music.

Evie's childhood was equally painful. Her mother died in a car accident when Evie was eight, leaving her with her neglectful father, Raymond, who had an alcohol addiction. By her midtwenties, she lives on Long Island, working as a freelance music journalist under the pen name Cameron Leigh, a gender-neutral alias chosen to navigate a male-dominated industry.

In the summer of 1998, Evie profiles Mayluna for Spin magazine at Jones Beach Amphitheater. Backstage, Carter helps her after she spills tea on her hand, making her an ice pack. She catches his attention by sharing that she once saw a star through the dark part of a crescent moon as a child, the phenomenon that inspired the band's hit "Moonstar." Evie advises Carter to lean into his public mystique rather than fight it. That evening, he spots her in the crowd and sings directly to her.

The profile becomes the first major interview Carter has given and attracts Paramour Records, the band's label, which offers Evie the chance to film a documentary. She joins the band at a rented beach house on Long Island. Tommy is warm, bassist Darren Andrews is quiet, and Alex is openly hostile, once hurling her tape recorder off the deck. She stands her ground, earning grudging respect. Over several days she becomes part of their circle and shares her first kiss with Carter. That night, she hears him playing a melody she recognizes as a lullaby from her childhood dreams.

Evie joins the American tour with her camera. Alex confides the story of Jacob's death and the band's fear that Carter will self-destruct if the relationship fails. Their bond deepens, though Evie's father appears at her apartment, broke and manipulative. Carter intervenes, and Evie opens up about her difficult past.

After the tour, the band returns to England to record what becomes the Sigma Five album. Evie follows, and Carter tells her she is his muse. One night he records "An Appearance of Light," a love song built on the melody from their first night at the beach house, singing it to Evie in the recording booth. Her photographer friend, Derek d'Orsay, captures the moment from behind, creating the iconic silhouetted photograph of the couple that becomes one of the most famous images of the decade. Derek never reveals her identity.

After Christmas with the band, Evie returns to Pennsylvania and reconnects with Steve and Kate, her lifelong best friend. Back in New York in February, she discovers she is pregnant and has hyperemesis gravidarum, a severe pregnancy condition. She cannot reach Carter, who is consumed by the frenzy following Mayluna's first Grammy performance, and he has told her he never wants children. When she arrives to join the next tour leg, gaunt and shattered, her father reappears and guesses the pregnancy. As the band prepares to leave, Evie drops Carter's hand in the hotel lobby and tells him she cannot go. He is swept into a waiting car, and Evie collapses.

Carter tells Michael he tried to reach her for weeks. He later learns she married Steve and assumes she has chosen a different life. When Evie finally tries to contact Carter months later, his phone number has changed. She leaves messages with the label and the band's inner circle, but Fred, the band's tour manager, and Tommy withhold them, believing Carter is better off moving on.

Evie returns to Pennsylvania, where Steve takes her in. Lainey, whose full name is Elaina after Carter's mother, is born, and everyone assumes Steve is the father. They marry, have a son named Lucas, and Evie abandons her career. She hides all traces of Carter and refuses to listen to Mayluna's music. Years later, she and Steve separate.

In 2009, Evie discovers that Carter's ring-finger tattoo uses the Greek letter sigma (Σ) and the Roman numeral five (V) to represent her initials, EV, connecting the album title directly to her. She attends a Mayluna concert with Kate. Carter spots her from the stage, freezes, and sends Fred to bring her backstage. Left alone, they learn the truth about their lost messages. They spend the night talking at his hotel. Evie tells him she is separated; he reveals that he and his fiancée, actress Iliana Billings, have broken up. Evie confesses she never stopped loving him.

Evie tells Steve that Lainey is Carter's biological daughter and flies to London, where she and Carter rekindle their relationship. Near the end of her visit, she tells Carter about Lainey. He is furious about the nine years he has missed and storms out. He eventually returns and begins to accept her reasoning. Before she leaves, he takes her to Yorkshire Dales, fulfilling his old promise to make her love autumn. They commit to a future together, and he ties a blade of grass around her ring finger.

Evie returns home elated. Carter has final tour dates before joining her. From Mexico City, he leaves a voice mail saying he feels like the luckiest man in the world and cannot wait to meet Lainey. On the plane, he finishes his interview, finally speaking her name: "Her name is Evie." The next morning, Evie wakes to news that the band's jet has crashed near the Venezuelan border. There are no survivors. This reframes Carter's entire narration: His chapters on the plane were his final hours.

Evie is devastated. She attends the memorial in Yorkshire and encounters Iliana, the woman the public remembers as the great love of Carter Wills. Her depression grows so severe that her children go to live with Steve. Lainey, only nine, feels abandoned. Gradually Evie recovers. She and Steve reconcile and agree never to tell the children the truth. Years later, Steve becomes ill and dies. On his deathbed, he tells Evie to let Lainey know she was always his daughter.

After Steve's funeral, Evie tells her children everything. Lainey is heartbroken, saying the plane did not take her father from her: Evie did. Weeks pass before she returns. Evie shows Lainey more than 75 hours of footage from the tour and Tommy's home videos, sent by Tommy's wife, Haley, after the crash. Watching it, Lainey sees Carter as a real person for the first time. Together with Derek, they produce Mayluna: Rising, with Lainey as executive producer, which wins a Grammy Award for Best Music Film. Evie moves to a beach house near Cupsogue, close to where the love story began, while Lainey settles in London, finding a life that finally suits her.