Minor Black Figures
-
- Pre-Order
-
- Expected 19 Mar 2026
-
- HUF3,990.00
-
- Pre-Order
-
- HUF3,990.00
Publisher Description
Over a hot summer in New York a painter falls for a priest, in this captivating modern love story from the Booker-Prize shortlisted Brandon Taylor
'A genuinely swoony summer romance' New York Times
'Stunning... an inquiry into desire, faith and what it costs to create beauty' Observer, *Best of 2026*
Wyeth is a newcomer to New York, a young Black painter who is trying to find his place in the contemporary Manhattan art scene. He shares a studio with his friends and earns money working for a gallery and an art restorer but he’s struggling with his portrait painting, unable to truly capture the life of his subjects.
Then he meets Keating, a white former priest struggling with his faith. The two men seemingly have nothing in common, and yet Keating shows Wyeth how to see the world anew. But as the men grow closer, the differences between them become more stark, until Wyeth and Keating must decide what they are willing to risk – for art and for love.
'One of the most perfect books I've ever read' NPR
'A piercing, precise, and affecting tale of young love and high art' Kirkus
'Brandon Taylor is without a doubt our laureate of hyper-intelligent yearning - nobody does it better' Lit Hub
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
The gimlet-eyed latest from Taylor (The Late Americans) follows a creatively blocked painter through the New York City art world. Wyeth, who is Black and gay, feels enervated by the industry's tendency to commodify artist's identities and by the "careerist young painters" who play along. Nevertheless, Wyeth admits to having practiced "identity-based art grift" by selling a painting that viewers mistakenly read as commentary on the recent murder of George Floyd but was actually inspired by classic European cinema. Now, in search of a new subject, he struggles to square his sense of integrity with pressures on Black artists to represent their culture. He also frets over whether he can make a career as a painter, or if his "work work" as an art handler and restorer will become his "real work," thus proving the fallacy of this "juvenile" distinction. The ideas at play take on greater dimension in barbed banter between Wyeth and Keating, his new lover and potential muse ("In 2020, everyone died. And this year, everyone wants to come see the resurrection," Keating says, commenting on the city's housing shortage after Covid-19). Through it all, Taylor evokes the quiet pace of his protagonist's summer days, gesturing at the contemplative cinema Wyeth so appreciates. There's much to admire in this portrait of an artist in flux.
