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Vendor
Liepman Literary Agency
Marc Koralnik
Original language
English

TIEPOLO BLUE

James Cahill

A mid-life coming of age novel set in the art world, and a powerful exploration of themes of beauty, friendship, sex and censure
Celebrated art historian Donald Lamb embarks upon an exhilarating journey of self-discovery, but his own character flaws and the manipulations of others lead to a devastating fall from grace When a disturbing work of contemporary art appears on the lawn of his Cambridge college, Don's hostility becomes an obsession, sparking a crisis which ends his academic career.

His old friend and mentor, Val, eases him into a new life, offering Don the Directorship of a gallery in south London, and the use of his house in Dulwich Village, where he is watched over by Ina, Val's housekeeper.
Away from Cambridge, Don begins to embrace life — and love — in ways he has never contemplated. An intense
friendship with Ben, an enigmatic young artist, introduces him to the heady contemporary art scene of 1990s London.

But a series of misjudgments and embarrassments endangers his role at the gallery. As his standing falters
once more, Don is forced to reconsider his old friend Val — what has Don forgotten? What has he failed to see? When Ben disappears, Don begins to unravel, beginning an odyssey around London that brings both scandal and liberation.

TIEPOLO BLUE is a wonderfully allusive novel, with art at its heart, shaping its remarkably vivid visual sensibility and illustrating Don's changing psyche as he opens up to new ways of seeing the world. TIEPOLO BLUE is also intrinsically a London novel, set during a vibrant period in the city's cultural history and full of darkly humorous social observation. It's been described as ‘Brideshead Revisited as written by Martin Amis', with ‘shades of John Williams' Stoner'. Readers of Alan Hollinghurst, Andre Aciman, and Javier Marias will also enjoy TIEPOLO BLUE.

JAMES CAHILL´S work has combined academia with a role at a leading contemporary art gallery. He is currently a Fellow at King's College London. His writing has been published in the TLS, the Los Angeles Review of Books, the London Review of Books, and The Burlington Magazine, among other publications. James was the lead author of FLYING TOO CLOSE TO THE SUN (Phaidon, 2018) a non-fiction survey of classical myth in art from antiquity to the present day. TIEPOLO BLUE is his first novel.
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Published 2023-05-11 by Sceptre

Comments

‘This divine debut from art critic and academic James Cahill is the smart, sexy read you need in 2022. Expect to see it on prize lists as well as Instagram feeds Not only an addictive pageturner, Cahill's book taps into the tensions and suspicions between generations that feels incredibly relevant for our testy times.' – Jessie Thompson, Evening Standard, ‘ Culture in London: the faces to watch in 2022 – Books'