Giving voice to the pains of making
Hannah Regel’s debut novel, The Last Sane Woman, explores the intersection of artistic ambition, disappointment and envy through the lives of three female characters, two of whom are aspiring ceramicists.
Nicola Long, with a bachelor’s degree in sculpture, shares her creations online. She dreams of artistic success but works as a kindergarten nurse, “There is the world of clay,” she says, “where everything is ruled by fire and force and where the images in my head get pushed out through my fists into something real. And then there is the other one: the soggy world of the mind.”
Her discovery of the Feminist Assembly, an underfunded archive dedicated to women’s art, leads her to the letters of ceramicist Donna Dreeman, written to her friend, Susan Baddeley, in the 1970s and 80s. Donna’s life, one of artistic frustration, failed relationships, and eventual suicide, mirrors Nicola’s own struggles.
Nicola’s initial exhilaration at finding a kindred spirit in Donna turns into a haunting realisation of their intertwined destinies. Regel’s narrative captures the fine line between success and failure in the creative world, emphasising the challenges of producing meaningful art in an industry that favours wealth and connections.
Dark drama behind the scenes
Set in 1955 Hollywood, Silvia Moreno-Garcia’s The Seventh Veil of Salome stars a young Mexican actress, Vera Larios, who wins the role of a lifetime. Her sudden rise to fame infuriates Nancy Hartley, “a professional party girl more than she was an actress”, who wanted the role for herself. Nancy is determined to make Vera’s life difficult, especially when jazz pianist Jay Rutland starts paying attention to Vera. Nancy’s racism and spite make her a formidable foe.
Meanwhile, Vera adjusts to life in Hollywood, deals with her controlling mother, and tries to avoid a predatory actor.
Moreno-Garcia masterfully captures the distinct voices of her characters with dialogue evocative of Golden Age cinema. The story, told from multiple perspectives, skilfully builds suspense, leading to an explosive and surprising climax. Moreno-Garcia, acclaimed for Mexican Gothic (2020) and Velvet Was the Night (2021), is at the top of her game in this intelligent, thrilling, and beautifully written novel.
The battle for a place called home
Burn by Peter Heller, the best-selling author of The Dog Stars (2012), tells the story of two lifelong friends, Jess and Storey, who embark on their annual camping and hunting trip in rural Maine. This year, they return to a dystopian world marked by violence and chaos due to secessionist movements. After weeks off the grid, they arrive in a small town to find destruction everywhere — burnt buildings, bombed cars, and a blown-apart bridge.
Trying to make sense of the devastation, Jess and Storey aim to find their way home, scavenging for supplies and avoiding armed men whose allegiances are unclear. Their journey takes a dramatic turn when they discover a five-year-old girl named Collie hiding in a boat. Now, they must not only survive the dangers of their war-torn country but also find Collie’s parents.
Burn is a gripping dystopian thriller that explores the beauty of the natural world and the depth of male friendship even in the face of societal collapse. Through vivid descriptions and moments of reflection, Heller crafts a wilderness adventure filled with emotional depth as he captures the importance of chosen family in a world gone mad.
“Despite the high stakes,” writes Publishers Weekly, “Heller gives the narrative plenty of space to breathe, allowing him to cast a haunting, immersive spell as his heroes traverse the ruined landscape. Painterly descriptions of nature and sparkling philosophical ruminations ... elevate the proceedings. The result is a wilderness adventure with real emotional depth.”
An eye for colour and chaos
Tehrangeles by Porochista Khakpour follows the Milani sisters, daughters of a wealthy Iranian-American snack baron in Los Angeles, who are about to star in a reality TV show. Roxana and Haylee embrace the spotlight with their influencer and wellness obsessions, while chronically ill Mina, and reserved Violet, are more hesitant.
“Everyone knew Violet was the favourite,” Khakpour writes. “Violet, with her near-mythic beauty — she had never, not even for a fraction of a season, known an awkward phase. Violet, with her soft voice that had the feel of cotton candy and whipped honey and shredded silk. Violet, who was the Persian rose, everyone agreed, like the ingénue of a classical Persian miniature tableau, with her huge black eyes and long, silky black hair, always giving a bit of Persian princess dipped in a Ferdowsi goddess mood. Violet, the surrogate mother; Violet, the first daughter; Violet, the soft and loving and sweet heroine of a better story.”
While their father is a successful entrepreneur, their mother is gloomy and disconnected. As filming begins, Covid-19 hits, forcing the family to be together.
That’s when multiple secrets and desires come to light, family members behave badly, and all are forced to face their true selves. Khakpour’s satire mixes elements of Little Women, American Psycho and reality TV.
Reflecting on identity and societal pressures, the novel captures the extravagance and absurdity of elite lifestyles in a divided country. With its blend of humour and critique, Tehrangeles is a sharp, entertaining take on wealth, culture, and the impact of public scrutiny.
Portrait of an artist
Hari Kunzru’s Blue Ruin dives into the cut-throat art world, exploring the dark connections between art and wealth in a dystopian art world. The story follows Jay, a humble performance artist living out of his car and working manual jobs, and his former friend, Rob, a successful yet morally bankrupt artist.
When Jay becomes an essential worker during the Covid-19 pandemic, he delivers groceries to a home in a world of “almost unimaginable luxury”. There he encounters Rob, who is now with his ex-girlfriend Alice. Jay collapses from long Covid, and Alice hides him in the compound’s barn to avoid the surveillance-crazed owner.
The story then flashes back to their time at art school in London, demonstrating how their lives diverged. “We are less continuous than we pretend,” Jay says. “There are jumps, punctuations, sudden reorganisations of selfhood. I’d always had goals, even if they weren’t ones that other people could understand, but at some point I’d lost touch with the person who’d set them. If you had asked me what I was doing, delivering groceries in upstate New York, I would only have been able to give you a superficial answer.”
His 20-year disappearance turns out to be an elaborate art project titled “Fugue”, embodying his rejection of capitalist art norms. Meanwhile, Rob’s career flourishes, even though he is a sell-out. The novel critiques the excesses and superficiality of the art world, and the moral decay among its elite. Through Jay’s story, Kunzru examines the sacrifices and ethical dilemmas artists face in a commodified society.
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