ME AND KAMINSKI

Sebastian Zollner, an underachieving art critic, has pinned his hopes of advancement on writing the biography of the artist Manuel Kaminski, a forgotten former pupil of Matisse, now an ailing recluse. Inept, charmless, and with scant knowledge of art history, Zollner is hardly the man to rediscover a lost genius of 20th-century painting. But he has made one crucial discovery about his subject: that Kaminski''s long-lost love, Therese, is still living, contrary to what the artist himself has been led to believe. Half road novel, half satire on the contemporary art scene, Me and Kaminski is a wryly humorous meditation on art, memory, and identity. It provides further compelling evidence of the exceptional talents of one of Europe''s most exciting and gifted young novelists.

Sebastian Zollner, a failing art critic, has pinned his hopes of advancement on writing the biography of the artist Kaminski, a former pupil of Matisse, now an ailing recluse. Inept and charmless, Zollner''s efforts to unlock the secrets of Kaminski''s life lead him to embark on a series of increasingly desperate measures.