A Talented Mr Ripley for contemporary Berlin: a twisting, sensual, heady and razor-sharp exploration of creativity, fame, desire and the divided self

‘The book that’s been missing from my reading habits: classically glamourous, timelessly seductive’ Torrey Peters

‘An erotic spectacular of self-creation and spiralling disintegration’ Olivia Laing
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Charli has finished art school and now has no idea what to do with her life. She’s broke, disillusioned and her flatmates hate her. One night at a bar in Soho, however, everything changes when she first encounters the charismatic musician Alexander Geist. Androgynous, glamorously handsome, mysterious and just a little sinister, he feels something like a soul mate; and so when he heads off to Berlin, Charli follows.

There, at the centre of the city’s febrile party scene, Charli and Alexander embark on their great project: to make Alexander into the biggest star since David Bowie. But Alexander is elusive, mercurial; and Charli is in over her head before she realises just how self-destructive her life has become under his spell.

A story of obsession and excess, doppelgängers and disassociation, fame and the terrible things we do to feel loved, Lean Cat, Savage Cat is an unforgettable novel from one of the most exciting writers at work today.