Autofiction has been known for fictionalising the mundane real lives of its creators. The names of the narrators aren’t always ?identical to those on the book covers, but their circumstances usually coincide with known details of the authors’ lives: their ages, children, hometowns, careers, and sometimes their publications and awards (a feature of contemporary literary celebrity). This starting point of self-reference has suggested, to many critics and readers, a kind of solipsism, or enclosure of imagination within the bounds of ego. It has not reflected the best of these novels in practice. The early 2010s were key years for the...