Dayswork (by Chris Bachelder and Jennifer Habel)

Another Tournament of Books entry. (I have about a week and five books left, can I do it?!?) (Probably not; I'm saving the three play-ins for last and if I run out of time, I will just read the winner.) 

This is a unique novel that revolves around a married woman researching Herman Melville during the early months of the pandemic.  It has almost no plot, and I would have enjoyed a smidge more, but it's a delightful read with a lot of great tidbits about Melville.   (My favorite is this quote from Philip Hoare: "Melville would never have finished his book today - he'd be constantly Googling 'whale.'") 

Tournament-wise, it should win the first round (it's up against Cold People, which has no ending) but should lose the second round to either Blackouts or Boys Weekend.  Then again, my predictions are almost always wrong, so we shall see...