Self-Portrait with Boy: A Novel
Written by Rachel Lyon
Narrated by Julia Whelan
3.5/5
()
About this audiobook
Longlisted for the Center for Fiction First Novel Prize, a "rich and thorny page turner" (Los Angeles Times) literary psychological horror about an ambitious young artist whose accidental photograph of a tragedy could jumpstart her career, but devastate her most intimate friendship.
Lu Rile is a relentlessly focused young photographer struggling to make ends meet. Working three jobs, responsible for her aging father, and worrying that her crumbling loft apartment is being sold to developers, she is at a point of desperation. One day, in the background of a self-portrait, Lu accidentally captures an image of a boy falling to his death. The photograph turns out to be startlingly gorgeous, the best work of art she’s ever made. It’s an image that could change her life…if she lets it.
But the decision to show the photograph is not easy. The boy is her neighbors’ son, and the tragedy brings all the building’s residents together. It especially unites Lu with the boy’s beautiful grieving mother, Kate. As the two forge an intense bond based on sympathy, loneliness, and budding attraction, Lu feels increasingly unsettled and guilty, torn between equally fierce desires: to advance her career, and to protect a woman she has come to love.
Set in early 90s Brooklyn on the brink of gentrification, Self-Portrait with Boy is a “sparkling debut” (The New York Times Book Review) about the emotional dues that must be paid on the road to success and a powerful exploration of the complex terrain of female friendship. “The conflict is rich and thorny, raising questions about art and morality, love and betrayal, sacrifice and opportunism, and the chance moments that can define a life…It wrestles with the nature of art, but moves with the speed of a page-turner” (Los Angeles Times).
Rachel Lyon
Rachel Lyon is the author of Fruit of the Dead and Self-Portrait with Boy, a finalist for the Center for Fiction’s First Novel Prize. An editor emerita for Epiphany, she has taught creative writing at the Sackett Street Writers Workshop, Bennington College, and other institutions. A native of Brooklyn, New York, Rachel lives in western Massachusetts with her husband and two young children. Visit RachelLyon.work.
Related to Self-Portrait with Boy
Related audiobooks
His Favorites Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Falconer: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Feast Your Eyes: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Lightness: A Novel Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5True Love: A Novel Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Escape Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Friendship Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5These Women: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5We Can Only Save Ourselves: A Novel Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Van Apfel Girls Are Gone Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Mother Daughter Widow Wife: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Reckonings: Essays Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Stray City: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Annie and the Wolves Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5St. Ivo Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Crooked Tree: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Tuesday Nights in 1980 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Mars Room: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Selfie as Big as the Ritz: Stories Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Take Me Apart: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Burning Girl Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Juliet the Maniac: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Blue Window: A Novel Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Boring Girls Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5History of Wolves Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The End of Getting Lost: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Atlas of Reds and Blues: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Vanishing Twins: A Marriage Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The City Still Breathing Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsNicotine: A Novel Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5
Literary Fiction For You
The Alchemist Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Blood Meridian: Or the Evening Redness in the West Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Hunger Games Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The House in the Cerulean Sea Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Song of Achilles: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Name of the Wind Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Babel: Or the Necessity of Violence: An Arcane History of The Oxford Translators' Revolution Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5All the Light We Cannot See: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Tom Lake: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes: A Hunger Games Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Remarkably Bright Creatures: A Novel Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Yellowface: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Kindred Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Flowers for Algernon Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Lady Tan's Circle of Women Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Demon Copperhead: A Novel Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5It Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Parable of the Sower Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Stardust Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Road Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Picture of Dorian Gray: Classic Tales Edition Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Tree Grows in Brooklyn Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Cloud Cuckoo Land: A Novel Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Ocean at the End of the Lane: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Hate U Give Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Overstory Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Leave the World Behind: A Novel Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Bell Jar Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Measure: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Reviews for Self-Portrait with Boy
7 ratings0 reviews