India, Aug. 26 -- There is a moment in One Boat when Teresa, the novel's narrator, realizes she can't learn anything more by asking questions. She has hit a wall. "There was little to be gained by further questions and much to be lost. I could know no more than I knew now, and as I was acceding to this conclusion I noticed, over to our right, to the north, on the horizon of the mountain, a thick smear of smoke sliding slowly away. On cue, another metaphor had been provided: the plot goes up in smoke." The line is funny, but also a confession of a book that doesn't believe in plot.

Not much "happens" in Buckley's novel. A woman travels to Greece twice, nearly a decade apart. She has conversations with locals, remembers old loves, document...