Book Deal for Author Ends Circuitous Path Back to Mainstream

In 1999, a young writer named Jenny Offill published a debut novel called “Last Things,” about a young child being home-schooled by a mother who is slowly going insane. The New York Times called the book, published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux, “remarkable,” and The Los Angeles Times made Ms. Offill a finalist for its award to new writers.

Then Ms. Offill essentially retreated for 13 years.