Publishers Weekly
05/13/2024
Lindley’s enticing first novel explores the seamy side of the antiquities market. Soon after a fisherman reels in a stunning marble figure near a small Greek island, Dr. Elizabeth Clarke, a 30-something American specialist in female Hellenistic statues, arrives to assess it. The nude form, which is missing two arms, could be the perfect focal point at the Los Angeles museum where she’s an assistant curator. Her boss, William, pressures her to make the acquisition, claiming that if she fails, her “coldness will be to blame.” The stress exacerbates her chronic migraines, but her mood improves after she meets her translator, Niko, and his wife, Theo. Eager to connect with the enchanting Theo, Elizabeth pretends to understand her elliptical statement about the statue being“complicit” in its “un-freedom.” Elizabeth loses herself to the island and the couple, imagining they want to sleep with her and failing to grasp Theo’s much different ideas about what should be done with the statue (the details come out later). Things take a turn when one of the statue’s missing arms mysteriously appears and vandals begin breaking into local museums. 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. (July)
From the Publisher
"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
"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 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
"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
“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
"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
"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
“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
"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
"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
"[A] gripping, delicious debut novel." —Town and Country
