Exposed

&quote;Art, love and longing, the French way . . . an emotionally taut portrayal of late-in-life, post-marriage drift&quote; from the author of The 6:41 to Paris (The New York Times Book Review). A French teacher on the verge of retirement is invited to a glittering opening that showcases the artwork of his former student, who has since become a celebrated painter. This unexpected encounter leads to the older man posing for his portrait. Possibly in the nude. Such personal exposure at close range entails a strange and troubling pact between artist and sitter that prompts both to reevaluate their lives. Blondel, author of the hugely popular novel The 6:41 to Paris, evokes an intimacy of dangerous intensity in a tale marked by profound nostalgia and a reckoning with the past that allows its two characters to move ahead into the future. &quote;A striking variation on the theme of the muse, this novel probes overlapping varieties of attraction . . . It veers toward the erotic, quickening the painter's search for the model's soul 'a term that disintegrates the moment you try to define it.'&quote;-The New Yorker&quote;Captivating . . . The novel flies by with gentle humor, but it also poses complex questions about the meaning of art and sexuality, and offers an elegiac look at late middle age . . . Irresistible, and the story's fundamental kindness sets it apart.&quote;-Publishers Weekly (starred review)&quote;A novel of tender, shy wisdom whose characters remind each other that memory lives in the body, loosened like knots by the right touch.&quote; Patrick Nathan, author of Image Control