In the Night Room was published by Random House in 2004 as a companion to lost boy lost girl (2003). Tim Underhill — the novelist character from Straub’s Blue Rose books — is writing a novel about a woman named Willy Patrick. But Willy seems to exist outside his novel: she appears in his life, she has memories and a history, and the boundary between the world Tim inhabits and the world he is creating dissolves.
The novel is Straub’s most metafictional work: it addresses directly the questions about storytelling, reality, and authorship that have been implicit in his fiction from the beginning. What is the relationship between a character and her author? Can a fictional person become real? Can a real person discover they are fictional? Straub explores these questions not through intellectual game-playing but through genuine emotion: Willy’s potential non-existence is felt as tragedy, not as clever puzzle.
The book also continues Straub’s exploration of grief: both Tim and Willy are processing devastating losses (Tim’s nephew, Willy’s daughter and husband), and their unlikely connection offers each a form of consolation that conventional reality cannot provide. The supernatural elements are subordinate to the emotional content — the horror is not in ghosts or monsters but in the possibility that the people we love may not be fully real.
Collecting In the Night Room
First edition (Random House, New York, 2004): Cloth with dust jacket.
Market values:
- First edition, fine/fine: $15–$40
- Signed: $30–$60
Projected values (2026–2036): Modest appreciation.
In the Night Room (2004) is a companion to lost boy lost girl (2003) and one of Straub’s most formally adventurous novels. Tim Underhill, the writer-protagonist of the Blue Rose trilogy, discovers that a character from his latest novel may have escaped into reality — or that he himself may be a fictional character. The novel blurs the boundaries between author and creation, reality and fiction, in ways that are both intellectually provocative and genuinely unsettling. It won the Bram Stoker Award for Best Novel.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do I need to read lost boy lost girl first? It helps but isn’t strictly necessary. In the Night Room directly continues narrative threads from lost boy lost girl and references events from the Blue Rose trilogy. Reading Straub’s earlier work deepens the experience considerably.