Venus, Vanishing

Blisteringly passionate, Venus, Vanishing by Rebecca Birrell is a page-turning debut novel of desire, art and the stories lost to the darkness of history. 'Gripping, gorgeously written . . . I couldn't put it down' - Joanna Quinn, author of The Whalebone Theatre 'This vivid novel of 1930s Berlin asks what it means to make art in an emergency' - Eleanor Catton, author of Birnam Wood Berlin, 1928. Hannah is new to the pleasures and freedoms of the city. She is a fledgling artist, a runaway, building a new life for herself in its galleries and clubs, and, at last, loving without boundaries. But soon the party will be coming to an end. A consuming affair with her patron, Elke - the imperious wife of a powerful man - is reckless, yet life-changing, and it threatens to do more than ruin both of their reputations. Around them, people are disappearing. The shadows of something unspeakable are growing darker in the city. Hannah's art could be the thing that secures her survival - or denies her any chance of escape. 'A radiant vision of art against evil . . . a bold, moving novel' - Megan Hunter, author of Days of Light 'Wonderful. Alive with a deep, resonant tenderness' - Elizabeth O'Connor, author of Whale Fall 'Extraordinary. I didn't want it to end' - Doireann Ní Ghríofa, author of A Ghost in the Throat

Rebecca Birrell is an art historian and curator. She is a Bye-Fellow at Murray Edwards College, University of Cambridge. Her first book, This Dark Country: Women Artists, Still Life and Intimacy in the Early Twentieth Century, was shortlisted for the PEN Hessell-Tiltman Prize and awarded an Antonia Fraser Grant for a Biography in Progress by the Society of Authors. It was chosen as a Guardian/Observer Art Book of the Year. Venus, Vanishing is her first novel.