Dimensions
153 x 234 x 24mm
Everything disappears except what matters: the potent, powerful stuff of life, the heart explosions, the colour, the truth.'
On the eve of 1980, downtown New York is the centre of the universe. Here are the artistes and the socialites, the dealers and collectors, party-goers and hangers-on.
Among them is painter Raul Engales, in exile from Argentina's Dirty War and his own past. Fresh on the downtown scene, he has just caught the eye of New York's most infamous art critic: James Bennett.
James has synaesthesia, experiencing life and art in wild, magical ways. He sees pictures as starbursts and fireworks, smells citrus when he says 'mother', and hears songs when he looks at sculptures. In this city, his name is a byword for good taste - until the day his gift deserts him.
And then there's Lucy: the muse. Newly escaped from suburban Idaho, she is drawn like a firefly to the electric brilliance of the city - and especially to its artists.
Over the course of one year, these three lives will collide and remake each other. A brand new decade has just begun and New York is a crucible brimming with the energy of a million secret metamorphoses, poised to spill forth art, destruction and life itself into the waiting world.
