Tangerine

Set in 1956 Tangier, Morocco, the novel opens with a prologue narrated by an unnamed woman in a care facility. She imagines a man's body pulled from water in Spain, admits the details are partly invented, and struggles to remember a name on a slip of paper by her bed. Her memory is failing; when a nurse enters, she asks that the paper be thrown away.

The story shifts to Tangier, where Alice Shipley, a young Englishwoman, has become a near-recluse since moving to Morocco with her husband, John McAllister. She met John at her Aunt Maude's urging shortly after returning from Bennington College in Vermont, where something terrible happened that Alice keeps buried. John promised adventure, and Alice, desperate to escape her past, accepted a hasty marriage. Their relationship has soured: John explores the city while Alice counts steps across their apartment and hands over her monthly trust allowance, having learned his family wealth is largely gone. Alice has a longstanding anxiety condition marked by shadowy visual disturbances that worsened after her parents died when she was a child.

Lucy Mason, Alice's former Bennington roommate, arrives unannounced. A young American from a working-class background, Lucy has crossed the Atlantic after tracking down Alice's address through deception. The two have not spoken since a falling-out connected to a car accident that killed Tom Stowell, a theater student from nearby Williams College. Alice is guarded and visibly unwell.

John does not recognize Lucy's name, revealing Alice has never mentioned her. He is charming but patronizing and invites Lucy to stay. That evening at Dean's Bar, a well-known Tangier gathering spot, John makes dismissive comments about Moroccan independence; Alice shows surprising sensitivity about the subject, and Lucy openly challenges him. In the bar mirror, Lucy catches John with another woman but decides not to tell Alice. The night ends when a stray dog bites Alice and she faints.

Through alternating chapters, the novel reveals Alice and Lucy's history. They met as first-years at Bennington, both orphans, and bonded instantly. Their exclusive dynamic fractured during junior year when Alice met Tom. Lucy grew hostile, and Alice's belongings went missing. Most disturbingly, Lucy wore Alice's dead mother's charm bracelet, claimed it was her own, then denied the conversation ever happened, exploiting Alice's known vulnerability about her mental state.

In Tangier, Lucy explores the city while Alice remains confined. She befriends Youssef, a Moroccan painter and local hustler, giving him Alice's name instead of her own. Through Youssef, she learns John's mistress is Sabine, a half-French, half-Moroccan woman. Lucy later witnesses John with Sabine near the Kasbah, Tangier's old fortress district.

Lucy coaxes Alice outside for the first time, first to Café Hafa, a cliffside teahouse, then on a trip to Chefchaouen, a blue-painted mountain town. Alice comes alive during the trip, taking photographs with her mother's old camera for the first time since arriving in Morocco. That night, Lucy tells Alice they must leave because John knows Lucy saw him with Sabine. Alice admits she already knew about the affair. Lucy kisses her. Afterward, Lucy mentions the Bennington accident and references cut brakes, a detail never publicly reported. Alice connects the dots: Lucy grew up above a garage and would have had the mechanical knowledge to sabotage Tom's car.

Lucy's narration confirms this. She crimped the brake line the night of a blizzard, intending only a minor accident to remove Tom and restore her bond with Alice. She never anticipated the icy roads or that Alice would be in the car. After the crash killed Tom and left Alice unconscious, Lucy fled to New York. Months later, she encountered Aunt Maude by chance, pretended to be Sophie Turner, a forgettable former classmate, and obtained Alice's Tangier address.

Back in Tangier, Alice orders Lucy to leave. That evening, John takes them to a den where patrons smoke kif, a form of cannabis, and then to a music venue. Drinking heavily, he reveals Lucy comes from a poor family, contradicting her claims. Alice declares she never invited Lucy and storms out. The next morning, Lucy calls John and walks with him to the Phoenician tombs on the cliffs above the ocean. John scoffs that Alice will never leave because she needs him to stay out of an institution and he needs her money. He lunges at Lucy. She strikes him with a rock and kills him, hiding the body beneath a boulder.

After John fails to appear at his office, Alice calls Aunt Maude. Lucy listens on the phone extension and overhears the conversation. She calls Maude back pretending to be Sophie Turner, then calls police pretending to be Alice to report John's disappearance. When Youssef reveals he witnessed the killing and tries to blackmail her, Lucy pays him and requests a forged passport in the name Sophie Turner. Days later, she pushes John's body into the ocean and plants his bloodstained wallet in Youssef's studio. Alice's mother's charm bracelet, already given to Youssef as payment for the passport, makes him appear an accomplice.

Aunt Maude arrives and Lucy greets her as Sophie Turner. Alice seizes Lucy's passport to prove her identity, but it reads "Sophie Turner." Stunned, Alice attacks Lucy. Maude, horrified, is persuaded by Lucy that Alice is having a breakdown. Police reveal that Youssef was found with John's wallet and the bracelet. Youssef has told them a woman named Alice Shipley befriended him and murdered her husband. Alice's earlier withdrawal from the joint bank account raises further suspicion, and her passport is confiscated.

Alice visits Youssef in prison, where he confirms the woman he knew was not the real Alice but says testifying would be pointless. She returns to find Lucy gone, all belongings removed. Realizing no one will believe her, Alice destroys the apartment in a fury. When police arrive, she retreats to bed with a knife, contemplating ending her life.

The epilogue reveals the aftermath. Maude arranges for Alice to be committed to a facility in Málaga rather than jailed, with "Sophie Turner" overseeing her care and receiving Alice's trust allowance. Before leaving Tangier, Lucy boards a ferry and introduces herself to a fellow passenger as "Alice," testing a new identity. In Spain, Lucy visits Alice weekly. Alice sits barely responsive, slips of paper bearing Lucy's name scattered around her, revealing the prologue's narrator to be Alice. On her final visit, Lucy kisses Alice's forehead and leaves. At the bank, presenting Alice Shipley's passport, she withdraws funds from the trust, now accessible since Alice has turned twenty-one. A bartender wipes Lucy's chalk marks from the counter, erasing all trace of her presence, as Lucy departs for a new life.