Exquisite Corpse

A mesmerizing tale of love, death, and sexual obsession told with unexpected humor, a definite edge of madness, and great fantastical flair.This is the story of Caspar -- a mildly unpromising painter living in 1930s London, a committed surrealist who nonetheless harbors a desire for the ordinary. Caroline, a sensible working girl, seems ordinary enough -- until she vanishes, leaving Caspar to wonder if she ever actually existed. He embarks in any case on a obsessive quest to find her, setting off on an increasingly surrealistic path through London, Munich, and Paris, in and out of orgies, opium dens, and madhouses where he's likely to encounter Orson Welles, Salvador Dali, Andre Breton, Dylan Thomas, Paul Eluard, or Aleister Crowley. But what really happens to him, and what does he merely imagine or desire?The dazzling interplay of fiction and fact-within-fiction -- what actually took place versus how it was perceived and understood -- is at the heart of this compelling novel. It is a wondrous work of imagination from one of the most intriguing writers at work today.