A novel about friendship, art, and grief.

When Leo, a writer, forms an intense bond with the painter Bill, their lives begin to orbit each other—families, work, and ways of seeing gradually entangled. What begins as admiration and intimacy shifts into something more fragile, then something harder to name.

Hustvedt writes like she’s thinking through the body. Perception, memory, desire—they don’t sit still long enough to be explained, only traced as they move. The result is a novel that feels precise but unsettled, where looking at art becomes indistinguishable from looking at people, and neither can be done cleanly.

Sceptre paperback edition. First published 2003 by Hodder and Stoughton; this is a later printing (full number line present). Good condition. Noticeable creasing to covers and spine, with general shelf wear; binding remains solid; interior clean and unmarked. A well-read but intact copy.