At the height of the pandemic Jay is working delivering groceries in upstate New York and living out of his car, when he delivers food to a remote house on an estate of many acres. The woman who meets him at the door turns out to be Alice, his girlfriend from when he was an art student in 1990s London, and whom he hasn't seen for 20 years. Moreover Alice is still married to Jay's best friend, and fellow artist, Rob. Told in flashbacks (which I would have preferred to sink into more fully) we learn that Jay was a conceptual / performance artist who decided to disappear for his last piece. Jay is ill with the virus and Alice decides to hide him on the property.
I really enjoyed this, both the present day sections and the past, and the writing. It asks some interesting questions: about whether art is art if there is no one there to witness it, whether art is real art if it is made for profit, whether the twenty years in which Jay was missing counted as part of his 'performance' even if it was documented, and when does a piece of art like this, end? It also asks questions about race but sometimes I felt these were a little shoe-horned in.