Autumn Laing

by Alex Miller

Genres: Literary Fiction

Synopsis

Autumn Laing has long outlived the legendary circle of artists she cultivated in the 1930s. Now old and skeleton gaunt, she reflects on her tumultuous relationship with the abundantly talented Pat Donlon and the effect it had on her husband, on Pat’s wife and on the body of work that launched Pat’s career.

Autumn Laing seduces Pat Donlon with her pearly thighs and her lust for life and art. In doing so, she not only compromises the trusting love she has with her husband, Arthur, but she also steals the future from Pat’s young and beautiful wife, Edith, and their unborn child.

Fifty-three years later, cantankerous, engaging, unrestrainable eighty-five-year-old Autumn is shocked to find within herself a powerful need for redemption.

Written with compassion and intelligence, this energetic, funny and wise novel peels back the layers of storytelling and asks what truth has to do with it. Autumn Laing is an unflinchingly intimate portrait of a woman and her time.

Release date: July 17, 2012

Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers

Print pages: 464