OUR YEAR OF MAYBE

Unrequited love through the filter of semiselfish organ donation.

Pianist Peter and dancer Sophie are fused together. Neighbors and friends for ages, they are intensely and emotionally intertwined. Peter’s kidney disease keeps him at home, perfect for introspective Sophie, who’d rather say nay to social activity and chill instead chez Peter. Their union leaps to another level when Sophie donates a kidney to save Peter’s life, setting off a chain of awakenings within both. Sophie wants next-level love, bisexual Peter wants to see what’s out there. The fissures in their formerly solid rapport threaten to dichotomize their lives as Peter embraces life’s opportunities (and a new beau) while Sophie laments the lack of amorous affection she expected as a byproduct of her hand in Peter’s health. Though the dual narrative is defined by namesake chapter headers, the voices initially are interchangeable, bleeding into each other instead of landing as dynamically different. There are a number of secondary diverse characters (East, Southeast, and South Asian; Latinx; and queer), and Peter’s love interest is half Argentinian and half white, but the two leads are both white (Sophie is Jewish, Peter describes himself as half Jewish).

An unexpected lens for a passable love story with an expected outcome.