After a childhood marked by pain, Rena Greenblatt has found the strength to build a successful career as a photographer. Like the ultrasensitive infrared film she uses, Rena sees what others don’t see, and finds a form of love. By photographing men’s bodies, she hopes to glimpse their souls.
Away from her lover, Aziz, stuck in Florence with her infuriating stepmother and her ageing, unwell father, Rena confronts not only the masterpieces of the Renaissance but the banal inconveniences of a family holiday. At the same time, she finds herself travelling into dark and passionate memories that will lead her to a series of disturbing revelations.
With exceptional flair and talent, Nancy Huston explores the links between family intimacies and our collective lives, between destruction and creation. In the spirit of her bestselling novel Fault Lines, Infrared is a story about how childhood, family, and our culture all have a direct impact on our sexuality.
Praise for Infrared:
An intense and sensual novel, in which unapologetic feminism never for a minute excludes the desire for men.
— France Soir
There is something eminently subversive in Nancy Huston’s latest novel. A 45-yearold woman dares to talk about her sexuality, her immense desire for men. But even more, Infrared is a staggering expression of the power of art as salvation.
— Voir
Nancy Huston is at her best in this portrait of a troubled woman who is simultaneously an ambiguous mother, an insatiable and mature lover, and a daughter distraught at the decline of her father. A snapshot of great depth, and written in a perfectly limpid prose.
— Charlie Hebdo
Nancy Huston is in top form writing about individual and collective memories, and she knows better than most how to dramatise family destinies.
— Le Monde des Livres
About the Author
A native of Calgary and of New Hampshire, Nancy Huston now lives in Paris; she writes in both French and English. The author of nine novels and numerous works of nonfiction, she has won the Prix Goncourt des Lycéens, the Prix du Livre-Inter, the Prix Elle, the Governor General's Award for Fiction in French and the 2006 Prix Femina.
Industry Reviews
--A "Globe and Mail" Top 100 Book of the Year"Huston shows her mastery of complicated structure, wide culural knowledge, and brilliant, assured portraiture."--"The Globe and Mail""There is something eminently subversive in Nancy Huston's latest novel. A forty-five-year-old woman dares to talk about her sexuality, her immense desire for men. But even more, "Infrared" is a staggering expression of the power of art as salvation."--"Voir" (Canada)"Compelling . . . A finely written examination of sexual politics and the importance of emotional triage."--"Quill & Quire""Poetic . . . A ruminative and sensual read."--Zoe Whittall, " National Post" (Canada)"An intense and sensual novel"--"France Soir""Nancy Huston is in top form writing about individual and collective memories, and she knows better than most how to dramatize family destinies."--"Le Monde des Livres""Infrared, written in lyrical slivers and voluptuous prose is an engaging work."--"Canberra Times" (Australia)
