None of This Is True: A Novel

Content Warning: This section of the guide includes depictions of domestic violence, pedophilia, sexual abuse, and alcohol addiction.

After the dinner party, Nathan still hasn’t come home, and when the doorbell rings at 3:00 am, Alix assumes that it is him. Instead, she finds Josie at the door with her dog, Fred. She appears to have been badly beaten, and she tells Alix that Walter began drinking when they got home and beat both her and Erin. When Alix suggests calling the police or Pat, Josie emphatically refuses, claiming that she has come to Alix because she has no one else. Alix, feeling trapped, offers Josie her spare room.

The next morning, Alix checks on Josie and finds that Fred went to the bathroom in the room. When Josie wakes up, she looks so terrible that Alix offers to make her coffee and walk Fred. Alix thinks about Walter’s warning about Josie from the night before; she can’t decide if he was being truthful or manipulative, and she wonders if she should be worried about Josie’s presence in her home.

Alix is still out with Fred when Nathan arrives home. He is surprised by Josie’s appearance and the fact that she is dressed in Alix’s clothes.