The Suicide of Claire Bishop

By Carmiel Banasky

Book Overview

Greenwich Village, 1959. Claire Bishop sits for a portrait--a gift from her husband--only to discover that what the artist has actually depicted is Claire's suicide. Haunted by the painting, Claire is forced to redefine herself within a failing marriage and a family history of madness. Shifting ahead to 2004, we meet West, a young man with schizophrenia obsessed with a painting he encounters in a gallery: a mysterious image of a woman's suicide. Convinced it was painted by his ex-girlfriend, West constructs an elaborate delusion involving time-travel, Hasidism, art-theft, and the terrifying power of representation. When the two characters finally meet, in the present, delusions are shattered and lives are forever changed. The Suicide of Claire Bishop is a dazzling debut, evocative of Michael Cunningham's The Hours (and Virginia Woolf's classic Mrs. Dalloway ), as well as Donna Tartt's bestseller The Goldfinch . With high stakes that reach across American history, Carmiel Banasky effortlessly juggles balls of madness, art theft, and Time itself, holding the reader in a thrall of language and personal consequences. Daring, sexy, emotional, The Suicide of Claire Bishop heralds Banasky as an important new talent.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1938103084
• ISBN13: 9781938103087
• Release Date: September 2015
• Publisher: Dzanc Books
• Length: 280 Pages
• Weight: 1.25 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.3" x 5.5" x 8.5"