{"product_id":"biography-of-x-9780374606176","title":"Biography of X","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eNamed one of the Ten Best Books of 2023 by \u003ci\u003eTime\u003c\/i\u003e (#1)\u003ci\u003e, Vulture, \u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003ePublishers Weekly\u003c\/i\u003e, and one of the Best Books of 2023 by \u003ci\u003eT\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003ehe New York Times\u003c\/i\u003e, the \u003ci\u003eNew Yorker, \u003c\/i\u003eNPR, the \u003ci\u003eLos Angeles Times\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eVanity Fair\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eEsquire, \u003c\/i\u003ethe \u003ci\u003eChicago Tribune\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eKirkus\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eLit Hub\u003c\/i\u003e, and Amazon\u003ci\u003e. \u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cb\u003eNational Bestseller. Winner of the 2024 Lambda Literary Award for Lesbian Fiction and the 2023 Brooklyn Library Prize, a finalist for the Dylan Thomas Prize, and longlisted for the PEN\/Faulkner Award and the Mark Twain American Voice in Literature Award. \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cb\u003eA \u003ci\u003eNew York Times Book Review \u003c\/i\u003eEditors' Choice.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"A major novel, and a notably audacious one.\" \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cb\u003e--Dwight Garner, \u003ci\u003eThe New York Times\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003cbr\u003eFrom one of our fiercest stylists, a roaring epic chronicling the life, times, and secrets of a notorious artist. \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eWhen X--an iconoclastic artist, writer, and polarizing shape-shifter--falls dead in her office, her widow, CM, wild with grief and refusing everyone's good advice, hurls herself into writing a biography of the woman she deified. Though X was recognized as a crucial creative force of her era, she kept a tight grip on her life story. Not even CM knows where X was born, and in her quest to find out, she opens a Pandora's box of secrets, betrayals, and destruction. All the while, she immerses herself in the history of the Southern Territory, a fascist theocracy that split from the rest of the country after World War II, and which finally, in the present day, is being forced into an uneasy reunification. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eA masterfully constructed literary adventure complete with original images assembled by X's widow, \u003ci\u003eBiography of X\u003c\/i\u003e follows CM as she traces X's peripatetic trajectory over decades, from Europe to the ruins of America's divided territories, and through her collaborations and feuds with everyone from Bowie and Waits to Sontag and Acker. At last, when she finally understands the scope of X's defining artistic project, CM realizes her wife's deceptions were far crueler than she imagined. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003ePulsing with suspense and intellect while blending nonfiction and fiction, \u003ci\u003eBiography of X\u003c\/i\u003e is a roaring epic that plumbs the depths of grief, art, and love. In her most ambitious novel yet, Catherine Lacey pushes her craft to its highest level, introducing us to an unforgettable character who, in her tantalizing mystery, shows us the fallibility of the stories we craft for ourselves.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eCatherine Lacey\u003c\/b\u003e is the author of the novels \u003ci\u003eNobody Is Ever Missing\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eThe Answers\u003c\/i\u003e, and \u003ci\u003ePew\u003c\/i\u003e, and of the short-story collection \u003ci\u003eCertain American States\u003c\/i\u003e. She has received a Guggenheim Fellowship, a Whiting Award, the New York Public Library's Young Lions Fiction Award, and a New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship. She has been a finalist for the Dylan Thomas Prize and the PEN\/Jean Stein Book Award, and was named one of \u003ci\u003eGranta\u003c\/i\u003e's Best of Young American Novelists. Her essays and short fiction have appeared in \u003ci\u003eThe New Yorker\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003e Harper's Magazine\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003e The New York Times\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003e The Believer\u003c\/i\u003e, and elsewhere. Born in Mississippi, she is based in Chicago, Illinois.\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Farrar, Straus and Giroux","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50571151540498,"sku":"9780374606176","price":21.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0831\/4771\/8930\/files\/img_5fd4e50b-a500-418e-b3e6-731c40c39d0b.jpg?v=1731963389","url":"https:\/\/surprise-castle.myshopify.com\/products\/biography-of-x-9780374606176","provider":"Surprise Castle","version":"1.0","type":"link"}