Germany. Faber writes across genres, including thrillers, rom-coms, and essays. Her work explores questions about memory, loss, language, and desire. Steeped in philosophical, psychological, and literary themes, her writing is grounded in studies of character. She lives with her family in Los Angeles.
Here Faber dreamcasts an adaptation of her debut novel, The Department:
The Department is set in an unnamed Southern university town. Imagine a vivid green lawn, manicured hedges where new buds emerge in pinks and whites, cut-off shorts and tank tops at the first signs of spring. The kind of lawn where you can be central, a game of hacky sack, lunch on the grass, students studying for tests on the benches, peals of laughter lifting into the outstretched arms of trees. Surrounding the quad are brick buildings, windows that peer down, to see but not be seen, a voyeur behind a pane of glass.Visit Jacqueline Faber's website.
Two lead characters hold this fictional world aloft. A philosophy professor, Neil Weber, whose life is imploding. His wife has left him for someone else in the department. His work has stalled and in its place, an intellectual (and existential) lethargy has crept in. Mark Ruffalo could nail this performance, delivering the right combination of charm and despair. A soul we can root for, but not without judgment.
The other protagonist, Lucia Vanotti, is a student who has gone missing. As readers, we follow her through the year leading up to her disappearance. She is reckless and brilliant, wrestling with the ghosts of her past, an early childhood trauma that leads her down dark and treacherous paths. The right actress would possess a wild and exuberant sense of youth, but also a wizened and world-weary perspective. At once jaded and wistful. Jenna Ortega could capture these seemingly contradictory demands.
--Marshal Zeringue