Season upon Season

Three winters, two springs, two falls, two summers: the events of Teri Vlassopoulos’s Living Expenses unfold over nine seasons. Each reflects time’s passage in the usual ways: the weather changes, the days get longer and then shorter, and the holidays mark another year’s end. The seasons are also charged with feeling — hope, disappointment, longing, and excitement — since this is, above all, a novel about trying to have a baby. It’s also about time, measured in weeks and months, and about the body, governed by its own mysterious ebbs and flows.

The story begins in early winter. The narrator is Laura, a thirty-four-year-old editor at a food magazine. Her husband, Joe, is a lawyer who also hosts a podcast about municipal politics. They met and married young, pursuing travel and hobbies, like Laura’s once popular food blog, before settling down in Toronto. As Laura celebrates Christmas with her mom and sister, Claire, she wonders if she’s pregnant; something...