FAIR WARNING Advance Reading Copy

Amy Dickerson, a star employee of a renowned auction house, falls in love with Alain Bouchard, a cultured French business mogul, but their seemingly perfect relationship slowly begins to crumble, forcing Amy to make a startling discovery.

Writing artfully and adeptly in "first-person-female," Butler limns a time of questioning in the seemingly successful life of Amy Dickerson, a 40-year-old art auctioneer who works for a major New York establishment just sold to a French concern. Amy will survive this pattern of questioning, of course; this is not a set of life-and-death emergencies, only emotional ones. Amy is offered a very lucrative contract by the takeover company, helmed by a handsome director who offers Amy a personal side to the deal as well. Simultaneously, Amy is beset by family distractions: an uneasy relationship with her unsteadily married sister and an unresolved relationship with her troubled, widowed mother, both of whom require Amy's time and professional expertise. Amy seeks the whereabouts of her private self--or is there one? The elements of a traditional life--marriage and children--fail to strike chords with her. Her new French lover, the man who will be her boss, is perhaps simply a collector of lovers as well as artifacts. Plot-simple, Butler's latest novel nonetheless poses universal questions despite its setting in the rarefied art world. In the end, all readers can relate to Amy's search for answers about what is one's own personal truth. Expect demand for this literary but popular writer. Brad Hooper
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In a novel based on an award-winning short story, the Pulitzer Prize-winning Butler (A Good Scent from a Strange Mountain) posits a theory: in this world, everyone must own or be owned. As a high-profile New York auctioneer, transplanted Texan Amy Dickerson knows this well. She sees it reflected both in the items she tempts her clients with and in her closest relationships. Amy has never allowed herself to be vulnerable to love, her sister's marriage is on the rocks, and her entire family struggles with the memory of her philandering father, who isolated his wife and carefully parceled out his emotions with his daughters. Amy's independence is tested by a gentle and sophisticated suitor who happens to be her new boss; he may or may not be able to break through her barriers. Butler is very much in romance-novel territory here, but he transcends the formula with his usual aptitude for finding exactly the right words to make the familiar patterns of love and desire seem fresh again. An excellent introduction to readers unfamiliar with Butler's work; highly recommended.
- Marc Kloszewski, Indiana Free Lib., PA
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