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  1. Books
  2. Fiction
  3. Contemporary fiction

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3.8(4)

Self-Portrait with Boy : A Novel

Soon to be made into a major motion picture—Self Portrait—starring Zoë Kravitz and Thomasin McKenzie

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).


Author:

  • Rachel Lyon

Narrator:

  • Julia Whelan

Format:

  • Audiobook
  • E-book

Duration:

  • 9 h 40 min
  • 304 pages

Language:

English

Categories:

  • Fiction
  • Contemporary fiction

3.8

4 ratings

Lea

11/09/2024

This book is nothing short of brilliant. I loved it so much I couldn’t stop listening to it. The protagonist is not very likeable, which I usually struggle with, but at the same time, she is very human and possibly not very different from a lot of us. She is strangely relatable at the same time as being unlikeable. And the story is so, so intriguing.

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  2. Self Portrait with Boy

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  • 4 books

    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. Her short stories have appeared in One Story, The Rumpus, Electric Literature, and other publications. A teacher of creative writing at various institutions, most recently Bennington College, Rachel lives in western Massachusetts with her husband and two young children.

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