A Nearly Perfect Copy
A Novel
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3.8 • 11 Ratings
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- $5.99
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- $5.99
Publisher Description
Richly drawn and sharply observed, A Nearly Perfect Copy is a smart and affecting novel of family and forgery set amidst the rarefied international art world.
Elm Howells has a loving family and a distinguished career at an elite Manhattan auction house. But after a tragic loss throws her into an emotional crisis, she pursues a reckless course of action that jeopardizes her personal and professional success. Meanwhile, talented artist Gabriel Connois wearies of remaining at the margins of the capricious Parisian art scene, and, desperate for recognition, he embarks on a scheme that threatens his burgeoning reputation. As these narratives converge, with disastrous consequences, A Nearly Perfect Copy boldly challenges our presumptions about originality and authenticity, loss and replacement, and the perilous pursuit of perfection.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In Amend's clever, wry second novel (after Stations West) American art expert Elm Howells enjoys her work at Tinsley's, the auction house her great-grandfather founded, but the recent loss of her young son has become an obsession she can't shake. When she learns at a party that the hosts plan to clone their dead dog in Europe, Elm sets off on an unlikely path to get her precious son back literally. Meanwhile, Spanish painter Gabriel Connois, the great-grandson of renowned painter Marcel Connois of the mid-19th-century group Les Hiverains, finds himself, after two decades in France, still a cultural and art world outsider. But at a friend's show, he meets Colette, who works in the French branch of Tinsley's, and she introduces him to her wealthy uncle, Augustus Klinman, who commissions Gabriel to do a slew of drawings in the style of Les Hiverains. Decorating luxury hotels not only gives Gabriel a lot of money, it leads to a solo show. Colette connects Elm with Klinman, who is attempting to pass off Gabriel's work as authentic Les Hiverains. She smells a rat, but cloning isn't cheap and she enters into a complicated moral dilemma. Amend makes her characters immediately real, depicting their complicated desires and decisions in a highly enjoyable, nearly perfect novel.
