A Boston Globe Book We’re Most Excited About This Summer ● A LitHub's Most Anticipated Books of 2024 Pick ● An Electric Lit Queer Books You Need to Read This Summer ● A Town & Country's Best Book to Read This July ● A Debutiful Noteworthy Debut of July
"(A) gripping, delicious debut." —Town & Country
"A little Cusk, a little Tartt (...) shrewd and sensual." —Electric Literature
"A penetrating and thrilling portrait of ambition, sexual power dynamics, and cultural theft, C. Michelle Lindley's The Nude doesn't let its readers off the hook easily." —Shelf Talker
“This book is so hot that it swelters." — Debutiful
“Offers sensual engagement with heady matters.” —Booklist
“This anticipated debut has all the ingredients for your smartest beach read of the summer.” —Tertulia
"Lindley expertly dials up Elizabeth’s paranoia and keeps the reader guessing as her mission’s true purpose is thrown into question. This one’s hard to shake." —Publishers Weekly
"C. Michelle Lindley’s The Nude is as seductive and sensual as it is haunting. Set on a Greek island, wrought in a delirium of desire and loss, The Nude looks unflinchingly at the violent contestation of the female body—as artifice and art, and object and agent alike. This is a book that I swallowed hungrily and that has stayed with me long afterward. Exhilarating, terrifying, and brilliant." —EMILY FRIDLUND, author of History of Wolves
“As stunning, complex, and carefully crafted as the sculpture our art historian protagonist hopes to acquire, I was astounded and utterly enchanted by Lindley’s portrayal of a woman’s internal journey from object to subject. The porousness of marble is a perfect metaphor for the vulnerabilities and dissolving boundaries of a woman finding autonomy in a world that insists on her complicit confinement. The lush, lyrical writing of The Nude depicts the gray areas of cultural appropriation, ethics, and sexuality so seamlessly, I had to remind myself to breathe while reading.” —LING LING HUANG, author of Natural Beauty
"The Nude dives headlong into tense questions about art and ownership and the unanswerable enigma of beauty. Elizabeth’s confrontation with the true cost of her museum-world rise, through her sensual and frightening travels in Greece, thrilled me. I could never guess, while reading, what would happen if she acquired her prize. I’ll be thinking about this book for a long time." —ALYSSA SONGSIRIDEJ, author of Little Rabbit
"Thrillingly taut and magnetically told, The Nude pries apart the pristine veneer of classical art and allows something sublimely twisted to emerge. Lindley has a gift for rendering the contours and shadows of her characters, and for helping the reader to peer more deeply into the unknown." —ALEXANDRA KLEEMAN, author of Something New Under the Sun
"A captivating and profound novel that delves unflinchingly into the eternal love triangle between desire, power, and art, The Nude gripped me from the first line to the last. This is a masterful debut." —ANTOINE WILSON, author of Mouth to Mouth
"In sumptuous, lyrical prose, C. Michelle Lindley excavates thorny questions of art, ownership, and agency. At once cerebral and hallucinatory, seductive and unsettling, THE NUDE is a fever dream of a debut." —ANTONIA ANGRESS, author of Sirens & Muses
“A remarkable debut, a slow-burn page-turner that turns a sweltering Greek island into a haunting house of mirrors. C. Michelle Lindley would have made Patricia Highsmith and Graham Greene proud.” —CHRIS BOHJALIAN, New York Times Bestselling Author of Hour of the Witch
"As thought-provoking as it is propulsive...a tense and sultry tale of art, beauty and power. A richly detailed read for the salty summer months" —CHLOË ASHBY, author of Second Self
“In prose that’s voluptuous yet restrained, as full of pleasure as it is disgust – like biting into a ripe fig just to discover a maggot buried inside – THE NUDE offers an incredibly sensitive and perceptive exploration of femininity, ownership and beauty. C. Michelle Lindley's skillful appropriation of the genre tropes of caper stories and erotic thrillers creates something entirely different and unexpected, a tale that will keep you guessing up until the last page.” -HANNA JOHANSSON, author of Antiquity
“With rippling prose, C. Michelle Lindley carves a taught and thrilling story about the necessary role of art in society, and sheds light on the sweltering way that complex beauty entangles not just its viewers, but those who seek to claim it.” - ELLE NASH, author of Deliver Me
A gripping, provocative, and sensual debut novel about an art historian who journeys to a Greek island in pursuit of a found sculpture and quickly finds herself immersed in a cultural tug-of-war and a complicated love affair. Read an excerpt on Tertulia.
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