Biography of X by Catherine Lacey

Dylan Thomas Prize Shortlist
When X - the iconoclastic artist, musician and writer - dies suddenly, CM, her widow, hurls herself into writing a biography of the woman she deified. The story will lead her deep into the Southern Territory - a fascist theocracy that split from the rest of the USA after World War II - before revealing the full weight of X's secrets, and the depth of her betrayal.
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'Sly, brilliant, philosophically acute, bitingly funny, and a pure joy to spend hours with' Lauren Groff
 
'By turns laugh-out-loud funny and painfully sad... I couldn't help finding it all heartbreakingly real' Telegraph
 
'A thriller set against a backdrop of political intrigue, an elegy, an art world satire and a thought experiment too...One of the most interesting books you'll read this year...' Financial Times
 
'A profound novel about love and what it can license, about the toll - and maybe the con - of genius' Garth Greenwell
 
'Sprawling and ambitious... Strange and dystopian... This is a major novel' New York Times