'Engrossing...I loved each and every brushstroke' Ian Rankin
'Nightshade is a glorious novel... full of twisted sexuality, art and power' Observer
Could the creative urge be the most destructive - even the deadliest - impulse of all? Could it end in death?
Eve Laing, once the muse of an infamous painter, is now - forty years later - an artist herself. But she has sacrificed her career for her family. She resents the global success of her old college roommate. She is slowly unravelling.
When Eve embarks on her most ambitious work yet, she takes a wrecking ball to her comfortable life, jettisoning her marriage for a beautiful young lover who seems to share her single-minded creative vision.
This timely novel explores sexual politics, asking if the true artist must relinquish the ordinary human need for love and connection to pave the way for desire and ambition, leading to a fatal awakening...
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Imprint: Vintage Digital
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Published: 19/03/2020
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ISBN: 9781473573703
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Length: 304 Pages
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RRP: £8.99
Reviews
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Nightshade is a glorious novel... full of twisted sexuality, art and power, about what it means to commit yourself entirely to the artistic life. The book's ending is unforgettable.
Alex Preston, Observer
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Brilliant and biting.
Harriet Fitch Little, Financial Times
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The drama of creation, of impending triumph or failure, and the expert rendering of the artistic process, all lift the novel to a new level...McAfee’s prose is lyrical yet sharp… the novel fascinates…and Nightshade’s questions continue to intrigue.
Joanna Briscoe, Guardian
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McAfee’s engaging novel combines a dark plot with a zestful skewering of the contemporary art world.
Anthony Gardner, Mail on Sunday
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Eve is a fascinating, plausible creation, both alluring and monstrous in her all-consuming self-regard.
Metro
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[A] pacy tale of marital breakdown on the London art scene… Eve is an engagingly spiky anti-heroine.
Anthony Cummins, Daily Mail
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Annalena McAfee brings a woman’s art to such vivid life that the reader is drawn thrillingly into its creation. Art is no mere device in this novel, it is its beating heart. A lush and original novel.
Polly Clark
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Beautifully written, engrossing and provides insights into both the contemporary art scene and the individual artistic process. I loved each and every brushstroke
Ian Rankin, Guardian, *Summer Reads of 2021*
