The Age of Light: A Novel - Hardcover

Scharer, Whitney

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0316524085 ISBN 13: 9780316524087

Publisher: Little, Brown and Company, 2019

Synopsis

Told in the alternating timelines of 1930s Paris and the battlefields of WWII, this "rapturous and razor sharp" debut novel brings to light the life of Lee Miller, a little known but fearlessly original artist whose legacy remains largely unexplored (Paula McClain, New York Times bestselling author of The Paris Wife).

"I'd rather take a photograph than be one," Lee Miller declares after she arrives in Paris in 1929, where she soon catches the eye of the famous Surrealist Man Ray. Though he wants to use her only as a model, Lee convinces him to take her on as his assistant and teach her everything he knows. As they work together in the darkroom, their personal and professional lives become intimately entwined, changing the course of Lee's life forever.

Lee's journey of self-discovery takes took her from the cabarets of bohemian Paris to the battlefields of war-torn Europe during WWII, from inventing radical new photography techniques to documenting the liberation of the concentration camps as one of the first female war correspondents. Through it all, Lee must grapple with the question of whether it's possible to stay true to herself while also fulfilling her artistic ambition--and what she will have to sacrifice to do so.

About this title

Review

An Amazon Best Book of February 2019: Lee Miller was already an accomplished model when she made her way to Paris in the 1930s, but her aim was to be behind the camera. A chance meeting with famed Surrealist photographer Man Ray set this plan in motion, and revealed that Miller’s artistic ability--and her ambition—rivaled that of her mentor (and eventual lover). Whitney Scharer’s sumptuous debut novel, The Age of Light, captures their passionate, and complicated, relationship, and pays homage to the pluck, determination and profound talents of a woman sometimes relegated to a footnote in Man Ray’s history. Both his and Scharer’s muse shines here. --Erin Kodicek, Amazon Book Review

About the Author

Whitney Scharer earned her MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Washington, and her short fiction has appeared in the Bellevue Literary Review, Cimarron Review, and other journals. She's received an Emerging Artist Award in Literature from the St. Botolph Club Foundation, a Somerville Arts Council Artists grant, and been awarded a residency at the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts. The Age of Light is her first novel.

About this edition

• Publisher: Little, Brown and Company
• Publication date: 2019
• ISBN 10: 0316524085
• ISBN 13: 9780316524087
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 384