James Tait Black Memorial Prizes
Lote (Twenty in 2020; Black Writers, British Voices)
A lush, witty debut that follows a Black woman’s search for forgotten Black modernist figures and the aesthetics they leave behind.
Work Information
Mathilda pursues traces of forgotten Black modernist figures, including the poet Hermia Druitt. The novel turns that search into a decadent, playful investigation of beauty, recovery, and historical erasure.
Book Information
- Publisher
- Jacaranda Books Art Music Ltd
- Published
- 2020-03-26
- Pages
- 460 pages
- Language
- 英語
- Size
- 12.7 x 3.18 x 19.69 cm
- ISBN-13
- 9781913090111
- ISBN-10
- 1913090116
- Price
- 851 JPY
- Category
- 洋書/Literature & Fiction/Genre Fiction/Horror/Occult
WINNER of The Republic of Consciousness Prize 2021. Lush and frothy, incisive and witty, Shola von Reinhold’s decadent queer literary debut immerses readers in the pursuit of aesthetics and beauty, while interrogating the removal and obscurement of Black figures from history. Solitary Mathilda has long been enamored with the ‘Bright Young Things’ of the 20s, and throughout her life, her attempts at reinvention have mirrored their extravagance and artfulness. After discovering a photograph of the forgotten Black modernist poet Hermia Druitt, who ran in the same circles as the Bright Young Things that she adores, Mathilda becomes transfixed and resolves to learn as much as she can about the mysterious figure. Her search brings her to a peculiar artists’ residency in Dun, a small European town Hermia was known to have lived in during the 30s. The artists’ residency throws her deeper into a lattice of secrets and secret societies that takes hold of her aesthetic imagination, but will she be able to break the thrall of her Transfixions? From champagne theft and Black Modernisms , to art sabotage, alchemy and lotus-eating proto-luxury communist cults, Mathilda’s journey through modes of aesthetic expression guides her to truth and the convoluted ways it is made and obscured.
Shola von Reinhold is a writer and artist. Her debut novel, LOTE, won the James Tait Black Prize and the Republic of Consciousness Prize 2021.
Reviews
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Great read
Bought as a present. Daughter loved it.
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Loved this book
Wow this book is brilliant! It really drew me into its world as fiction but at the same time (as an art historian) it really made me think about the real historical period its protagonist was researching, it reminded me at points of AS Byatt, Ronald Firbank, and Iain Banks all chopped up into something totally new - one of the best books I read last year, I’ve bought it for quite a few people who all enjoyed it too.
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Incredible
One of the best books I read this year. Schola’s work is unique and the idea of resistance through luxury is beautiful. I am so glad I got to experience this story at their hands!