About the Author

Maria Gainza (Author)
Maria Gainza was born in Buenos Aires, where she still resides. She has worked as a correspondent for the New York Times in Argentina, as well as for ARTnews, and has contributed to Artforum, The Buenos Aires Review, and Radar, the cultural supplement from Pa gina/12. Her debut novel, Optic Nerve, translated by Thomas Bunstead, was shortlisted for the 2020 LA Times Art Seidenbaum award for First Fiction, a finalist in the 2020 National Translation awards, and a New York Times 'Notable Book' of 2019.

Reviews

'Vividly detailed and saturated with intricate feeling, Gainza's novel is an engrossing exploration of authenticity, obsession, and the enveloping allure of art'
*Alexandra Kleeman, author of SOMETHING NEW UNDER THE SUN*

This is a truly exquisite novel... It is moving, clever and written wry precision... As much as the narrator is haunted, the reader will be haunted
*Scotland on Sunday*

Gainza weaves a fascinating, often confounding story about beauty, obsession and authenticity... Gainza is sharp, modern and playful, a writer who multiples the possibilities of fiction
*Observer*

A richly detailed detective novel of sorts that explores authenticity and the distance between the way things appear and they way they really are
*Monocle*

Dazzling... [a] clever novel that explores the gap between what's remembered and what's real
*Spectator*