The Imagined Life by Andrew Porter

 The Imagined Life follows Steven Mills, a man in a struggling marriage who becomes obsessed with uncovering the truth about the father who vanished from his life when he was only twelve. Driving up the coast of California, Steven seeks out his father’s friends, family, and former colleagues, and is transported back to his 1980s childhood: his parents’ legendary pool parties, black-and-white films on the backyard projector, his father’s male friends in the cabana house… With every revelation his father becomes more difficult to recognise, and, with every insight, Steven must confront truths about his own life.