Narcissi by Babette Fraser Hale

 

Narcissi: A Novel

By Babette Fraser Hale

Women’s Fiction/ Texas Fiction

Publisher: Winedale Publishing

Publication Date: October 15, 2026

SYNOPSIS

Ten women fall for Cole Burnett, a traveling Texas writer. He is the kind of man whose need for freedom should send lovers running in the opposite direction. But he has a lanky charisma and the gift of listening, rare enough at any time. The women he encounters in Narcissi, a novel-in-stories, find his attention compelling, and they all get hurt, or cause hurt. But hurt is never the whole story.

Each woman brings her own complicated life into her time with Cole, conflicts with husbands, traumas survived, needs postponed, children. And children grow up with questions.

Burnett understands that loneliness compels him toward the women he meets. But none of them seems to reach where the loneliness resides, where whatever’s missing pushes him to keep moving, to find a purpose for his future. Later, after the death threat, traveling becomes a way to stay alive.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Babette Hale is the author of A Wall of Bright Dead Feathers, winner of the 2022 Troncoso Award for debut fiction from the Texas Institute of Letters, and a memoir, This Familiar Heart, about her relationship with her late husband, Leon Hale. In addition to writing fiction, she has been a magazine feature writer, columnist, book editor, publisher and part owner of a bookstore. She lives in Texas and is a member of the Texas Institute of Letters. 

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REVIEW

Babette Fraser Hale’s Narcissi is a captivating collection of vignettes that offers snapshots into the pasts and presents of the women impacted by magazine columnist Cole Burnett. The story swiftly drew me into the rhythm of the women’s emotions, their hopes, and their regrets—and how they all combine to bring them into Cole Burnett’s bed. A nuanced blend of scoundrel, woman-whisperer, gifted writer, and self-doubt, Cole Burnett left me conflicted in the best way. Hale created a character whose broken moral compass should be more off-putting. He’s abandoned two wives; his affairs overlap; he takes advantage of generous women who yearn for a relationship he knows he can never provide. And yet, he is keenly sensitive, fully seeing each woman in ways they’ve never experienced, intuiting what they need. Making them feel understood, attractive, desirable. These are not tawdry encounters but rather points of deep connection and comfort for both parties. We witness Cole’s stew of emotions: foggy grief and regret flavored with the shame of failure in his family life. His shortcomings in long-term relationships and fatherhood are sharply juxtaposed with his successful writing career and mild celebrity. Under it all runs the curiosity and wanderlust that drive him to roam the state, looking for compelling stories. This aspect of the book felt like a love letter to Texas's past, before development pushed out much of the wildlife, a time of “slow travel.” At its heart, Narcissi is a story about how a complex, flawed man impacts the lives of the many women he loved. In the end, one must decide whether being seen, even for a brief moment, is worth the pain it might cost. Anyone who enjoys stories with complex characters who leave you thinking long after you’ve turned the last page will enjoy Narcissi.

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