Muse - Hardcover

Galassi, Jonathan

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0224102419 ISBN 13: 9780224102414

Publisher: Jonathan Cape, 2015

Synopsis

Paul Dukach is heir apparent at Purcell & Stern, one of the last independent publishing houses in New York, whose shabby offices belie the treasures of its list. Thanks to his boss, the flamboyant Homer Stern, Paul learns the vagaries of the book world: how to work an agent over lunch and swim with the literary sharks at Frankfurt book fair; how to marry flattery with criticism when combing over the manuscripts of brilliant, volatile authors. But though things can be shaky in the age of conglomerates and ebooks, Paul remains obsessed by one dazzling writer: poet Ida Perkins, whose outsize life and audacious verse have shaped America‘s contemporary literary landscape, and whose longtime publisher – also her cousin and erstwhile lover – happens to be Homer's biggest rival.

When Paul finally meets Ida, at her secluded Venetian palazzo, she entrusts him with her greatest secret – one that will change all of their lives forever. Enriched by juicy details only a quintessential insider could know, written with both satiric sharpness and sensitivity, Muse is a love letter to the people who write, sell – and, above all, read – the books that shape our lives.

About this title

Review:

"Stylish" (Observer)

"Entertaining" (New Yorker)

"Entertaining, keenly observed, incisive" (New York Times)

"Compelling... Galassi propels his readers forward on a thought-provoking, often hilarious, bittersweet ride... A bravura first novel" (Los Angeles Review of Books)

"Accomplished, entertaining, affecting" (New York Journal of Books)

Book Description:

The story of the decades-long rivalry between two publishing lions over the work of an iconic female poet

About this edition

• Publisher: Jonathan Cape
• Publication date: 2015
• ISBN 10: 0224102419
• ISBN 13: 9780224102414
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 272