'A study in the morality of art, a thriller and a love story all at once; this is a marvellous and bewitching novel.' - Metro
Charles Monk is an artist obsessed by war. He is both appalled and fascinated by its extremes and it is only during wartime that he feels truly alive. As he travels from war zone to war zone, he is consumed by the eroticism of his experiences as he desperately tries to capture them on canvas. But it is his love for Miriam, the wife of his best friend - the son of a massively wealthy shipping magnate - that proves to be his most dangerous challenge.
'Innovative and confident. He writes with precision and grace. An accomplished, intriguing and entertaining novel' - Independent on Sunday
'This is rich material, and cunningly presented...Kelly's novel is so good' - Time Out
'The War Artist contains echoes of Alison Lurie, both in its subject and its spare, evocative style' - The Times
'A thriller that inhabits the Wildean space where art and life collide' - Financial Times
'Kelly's enigmatic novel...leads the reader into a deadly labyrinth, whose secrets insinuate themselves into the mind like mental depth-charges. It's a mystery story, and yet as in all the best tales it works on a much broader canvas' - The Big Issue
'This is an unusual, and unusually good, tale, caught beneath a light veil of surrealism more typical of European fiction. Charles Monk is an acclaimed war artist but his life and work is dogged by an obsession for his best friend's wife, who is now dead, and who Monk once painted nude. That picture is also now lost but, while Monk would prefer to keep it that way, there are others who would not. A study in the morality of art, a thriller and a love story all at once; this is a marvellous and bewitching novel.' - Metro
Steven Kelly is the author of the short story collection Invisible Architecture and the novels The Moon Rising and The War Artist. By day, he maintains web sites for a living - including his own on-line literary magazine The Richmond Review. By night, he writes. He can be emailed at [email protected]