Self-Portrait with Nothing
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4.7 • 3 Ratings
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
Orphan Black meets Fringe in a story that reminds us that living our best life sometimes means embracing the imperfect one we already have.
"Fraught and deeply moving...the work of a genuinely exciting new talent." —Booker Prize winner, George Saunders.
“Aimee Pokwatka’s Self-Portrait with Nothing is tantalizing and elusive lacework, delicately balanced between the branches of fantasy, mystery and realism like a spider’s web.” —The New York Times
If a picture paints a thousand worlds . . .
Abandoned as an infant on the local veterinarian’s front porch, Pepper Rafferty was raised by two loving mothers, and now, at thirty-six is married to the stable, supportive Ike. She’s never told anyone that at fifteen she discovered the identity of her biological mother.
That’s because her birth mother is Ula Frost, a reclusive painter famous for the outrageous claims that her portraits summon their subjects’ doppelgängers from parallel universes.
Researching the rumors, Pepper couldn’t help but wonder: Is there a parallel universe in which she is more confident, more accomplished, better able to accept love?
A universe in which Ula decided she was worth keeping?
A universe in which Ula’s rejection didn’t still hurt too much to share?
Combining a thrilling pan-continental race against time with an authentic and touching personal drama, Self-Portrait with Nothing is an unforgettable debut that explores what it means to be part of a family.
At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Pokwatka's speculative debut straddles the line between sci-fi thriller and literary fiction. Enigmatic painter Ula Frost is missing and the only clues to her disappearance are the portraits she left behind, which are said to manifest an alternate version of the sitter from their universe into this one, often with tragic consequences. Forensic anthropologist Pepper Rafferty was abandoned on a doorstep as a baby and the consequences of that moment echo into Pepper's present day: she's "so terrified she'd inherited an instinct to abandon people that she tried to make them abandon her first." After Pepper mysteriously inherits property from Ula, she follows the painter's trail first to London and then Wrocław, Poland. Unlike most stories incorporating Many Worlds theory, Pokwatka focuses not on exploration or the mechanics of branching universes but on the emotional ramifications; Pepper spends much of the novel wondering about alternate, "better" versions of herself. But as she delves deeper into Ula's disappearance and discovers a world of art heists and shady millionaires, Pepper learns to embrace her imperfections. The result is a deeply felt, introspective meditation on motherhood and the nature of the self.
