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Three years on from the pandemic and the expected tidal wave of panicky novels steeped in apocalyptic depictions of raging viruses, totalitarian governments and terrified populations hasn’t, thankfully, come to pass. Instead, the best works of fiction to respond to Covid have done so tangentially. Sigrid Nunez’s new novel leads the way: it’s almost comically low key. An elderly woman holes up in a friend’s obscenely lovely Manhattan apartment during lockdown to look after her parrot. At some point another parrot sitter – a much younger, very beautiful boy – moves in. The odd ball friendship, forged over socially distanced tubs of ice cream, sparks all manner of unexpected moments of connection but it’s Nunez’s voice that captivates. Her warmly vinegary observations cast lockdown as an expression of the restless human condition. And, for many, an absurdly privileged one at that. “If there is one thing Covid taught us,” she observes, “it’s that more people than we thought had places upstate.”