June 2016, and former "sexiest classical musician" Allegra Le Clef is suffering from a compound wrist fracture. Europe also crumbles... Shocking, camp-and shockingly camp-My Other Spruce and Maple Self is nevertheless a profoundly sad book about a woman unable to come to terms with her own declining status, as well as that of the West.

It's fall (or autumn) 2018. The Trump administration wants to fortify the United States-Mexico border, Robert 'Beto' O'Rourke is running for Senate, and British grifter Nicki Smith has just secured a "low-paid glamour job" at the University of Texas' Jacques Lacan Foundation. In between sleeping with the air-conditioning repair guy (or man) and watching Kate Moss make-up commercials (or advertisements) Nicki completes the first ever American-English translation of Lacan's newly discovered and highly controversial notebook - without knowing any French. An Anglo-American comedy of manners...