''In an age driven by desire, what happens when you want two different things?
'Set in the pristine, precarious world of MoMA, The Modern is a brilliantly wry and insightful debut about art, sexuality, commitment and whether being on the right path can lead to the wrong place.
'Things seem to be working out for Sophia in New York: having come from Australia to be at the centre of modernity, she’s working at the Museum of Modern Art, living in a great apartment with a boyfriend interviewing for Ivy League teaching positions. They’re smart, serious, dine in the right restaurants and have (a little unexpectedly) become engaged just before he leaves to hike the Appalachian Trail.
'Alone in the city, Sophia begins to wonder what it means to be married – to be defined, publicly – in the 21st century. Can you be true to yourself and someone else? In a bridal shop she meets Cara, a young artist struggling to get over her ex-girlfriend, and the two begin a connection that leads Sophia to question the nature of her relationships, her career and the consequences of being modern.
'Both playful and profound, inhabiting the gap between what we feel about ourselves and how we behave, Anna Kate Blair’s debut novel is a sparklingly insightful queer exploration of desire, art and her generation’s place in the world. It announces an exceptional new literary voice.' (Publication summary)
'Set in and around New York's Museum of Modern Art, this debut explores not just art but sexuality, job precarity and creativity.'
'The Museum of Modern Art is the glassy heart of The Modern, Anna Kate Blair’s debut novel, where Australian transplant Sophia spends the last days of her two-year fellowship checking artworks for dust and taking Instagram pictures of different gradations of white. Here, the monastic halls of MoMA are a transitory space, where even senior curators are on fixed-term contracts, and promotion is a far-flung fancy.' (Introduction)
'Each month we celebrate an Australian debut release of fiction or non-fiction in the Kill Your Darlings Debut Spotlight feature. For October that debut is The Modern by Anna Kate Blair (Simon & Schuster), a brilliantly wry and insightful debut about art, sexuality, commitment and whether being on the right path can lead to the wrong place. We spoke to Anna about her publishing journey and writing practice.' (Introduction)
'Is marriage modern? This is the circuitous premise of Australian writer Anna Kate Blair’s debut novel, The Modern, set in contemporary New York and centred on the life, half-loves and near-loves of Sophia, an Australian research fellow at MoMA (the Museum of Modern Art).' (Introduction)
'This novel, about an Australian woman’s existential spirals while working in New York’s Museum of Modern Art, is often frustratingly opaque'
'“I want a surface that resists, like a wall, not opens, like a gate,” wrote the painter Grace Hartigan in 1956. Associated for a time with the abstract expressionist movement, she depicted the bridal shop windows of Manhattan with roughened gestures and vivid hues. In Anna Kate Blair’s debut novel, The Modern, Hartigan is something of a muse for the narrator, Sophia, who is completing her dissertation on the artist while she works at MoMA.' (Publication summary)
'Is marriage modern? This is the circuitous premise of Australian writer Anna Kate Blair’s debut novel, The Modern, set in contemporary New York and centred on the life, half-loves and near-loves of Sophia, an Australian research fellow at MoMA (the Museum of Modern Art).' (Introduction)
'The Museum of Modern Art is the glassy heart of The Modern, Anna Kate Blair’s debut novel, where Australian transplant Sophia spends the last days of her two-year fellowship checking artworks for dust and taking Instagram pictures of different gradations of white. Here, the monastic halls of MoMA are a transitory space, where even senior curators are on fixed-term contracts, and promotion is a far-flung fancy.' (Introduction)
'Each month we celebrate an Australian debut release of fiction or non-fiction in the Kill Your Darlings Debut Spotlight feature. For October that debut is The Modern by Anna Kate Blair (Simon & Schuster), a brilliantly wry and insightful debut about art, sexuality, commitment and whether being on the right path can lead to the wrong place. We spoke to Anna about her publishing journey and writing practice.' (Introduction)
