Quill Quire

“A woman explores complex family relationships and discovers truths about herself in this sensual, intricately woven offering from award-winning Huston.”—Kirkus Reviews Nancy Huston follows her bestselling novel, Fault Lines, winner of the Prix Femina, with an intensely provocative story about a passionate yet emotionally wounded woman’s sexual explorations. After a troubled childhood and two failed marriages, Rena Greenblatt has achieved success as a photographer. She specializes in infrared techniques that expose her pictures’ otherwise hidden landscapes and capture the raw essence of deeply private moments in the lives of her subjects. Away from her lover, and stuck in Florence, Italy, with her infuriating stepmother and her aging, unwell father, Rena confronts not only the masterpieces of the Renaissance but the banal inconveniences of a family holiday. At the same time, she finds herself traveling into dark and passionate memories that will lead to disturbing revelations. Infrared is both an explicitly bold story of how sexuality is influenced by childhood, family, and culture, and a portrait of a woman coming to terms with the end of her father’s life. With exceptional flair and intelligence, Huston fearlessly investigates the links between family intimacies and our collective lives, between destruction and creation. “Huston shows her mastery of complicated structure, wide cultural knowledge, and brilliant, assured portraiture.”—The Globe and Mail (Top 100 Books of the Year) “There is something eminently subversive in Nancy Huston’s latest novel. A forty-five-year-old women dares to talk about her sexuality, her immense desire for men. But even more, Infrared is a staggering expression of the power of art as salvation.”—Voir