An intimate, often humorous exploration of the intertwining cycles of
death, rebirth and coincidence through the eyes of an existential
artist.
An amazing game of mirrors. [...] Original and promising.
--Le Monde
2014 Anton Wachter Prize for Best First Novel; Golden Book Owl Reader's
Choice Award; Opzij Feminist Literature Prize; 2014 Lucy B. & C.W. van
der Hoogt Prize; Nominated for the John Leonard Prize, National Book
Critics Circle
Meet Minnie Panis, a young and talented conceptual artist navigating
love affairs, her unexpected success in the art world, and her
relationship with an emotionally distant mother. After surviving a
near-death experience falling through the ice during her ultimate
artwork, Minnie begins to uncover the truth behind her premature birth
with the help of the doctor who saves her life--as it turns out--twice.
Entering into his clinic, whose motto is All the fish needs is to get
lost in the water, Minnie arrives at the border of life's ebb, where
meaningful art and revelations occur.
Niña Weijers' remarkable, inventive novel depicts a contemporary
conceptual artist at the height of her fame, whose blasé art project has
unintended consequences. Weijers invokes Kurt Vonnegut in the course
of the narrative, and this novel shares Vonnegut's sense of how things
can be simultaneously real and absurd. Movies and books notoriously fail
to capture the social and spiritual atmosphere of the contemporary art
world, but Weijers nails it. Her book is beautifully written, surprising
and often profound.
--Chris Kraus
