“If there is an internal theme to this collection of Tuten’s whimsical works, it would be a trio of sombreros, which appear floating around many of the paintings. Met by scenic backdrops, varied furniture, and abstracted faces, the sombreros find adventure wherever they go. This isn’t just a viewer’s interpretation, either—Tuten is expected to release an art book with Koenig Books Ltd. soon that features fanciful short stories alongside around 40 of his drawings and paintings. With each painting of the sombreros, Tuten specifies that there will be “a little story about how the sombreros left their masters—their heads, so to speak.”
— from Dan’s Papers, “Frederic Tuten: A Life Dedicated to Arts”
Frederic Tuten is an artist and writer based in New York. He is the author of the memoir My Young Life, five novels, and two short story collections. His short story “Self-Portrait with Circus” has been translated into Russian. He has had two solo shows, at Planthouse and Harper’s Gallery. He is currently represented by Harper’s.
When Clea returns to London with her new Russian husband, she is surprised to see him become even more eccentric.
A haunting dystopia some readers have called “the new 1984.” In a society where memory is rewritten and resistance is pre-approved, freedom isn’t restricted; it’s redefined. As systems evolve beyond human control and choice becomes a simulation, true defiance means refusing the script, even when the system already knows you will.
“13 short pieces…pungently convey the effects of growing up under a totalitarian regime.” .—Publishers Weekly
Original poetry by Nina Kossman, accompanied by a selection of poems by Marina Tsvetaeva, translated from Russian by Kossman. “The sea is a postcard,” writes Nina Kossman. There is both something elemental in this vision and—iron-tough.”
—Ilya Kaminsky
