Alena: A Novel

(Paperback)

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Description

An aspiring young curator is attending the Venice Bienniale when she is offered a position at the Nauk, Cape Cod's most cutting-edge art gallery. It's the job of her dreams, and she jumps at the chance. The wealthy, enigmatic founder who offered her the job, Bernard Augustin, fails to mention that Alena, the previous curator, died two years ago. Quickly, she finds herself in over her head. The Nauk echoes with phantoms of the past - a past obsessively preserved by the museum's staff - and the newcomers every move mires her deeply in artistic, erotic, and emotional entanglements.

Reviews

"[A] faithful, patient reimagining of Daphne du Mauriers novelThe writing at times is so fine you wish this werent a retold storyAlena is a brilliant take-down of the self-serious art world, rendering it helplessly camp by sprinkling some of its august and/or provocative names.over thispop-culture totem. New York Times Book Review

Luminous and sure-footedThe triumph of Pastans story is that it manages to be more than a companion piece to du Mauriers. Alena proves itself an intriguing and substantial novel on its own merits, while still offering the kind of gothic plunge we remember and crave from our younger years. The Washington Post

"Provocative and spellbinding...[the] ideal book to enjoy outside on a park bench, at the beach or under the hugging branches of an oak or willow tree."Literary New England

Perfect for curling up with on a winters night so eerie and elegantly suspenseful that I could see myself rereading it, the way I reread Rebecca every few years or so. Maureen Corrigan, NPR Books

This artful take on du Mauriers gothic classic Rebecca has its own surprise twists. Good Housekeeping

"Pastan is gifted with sentient and lyrical writing, and she paints a scene exactlyFor readers who love characterizations and language from fresh sources of inspiration, there is good reason to read this book. Washington Independent Review of Books

"Like a good reproduction,Alenapreserves important trademarks of the original art creepy and claustrophobic."
Entertainment Weekly

"One of the most delicious novels of the year....Alena is the rare book that stimulates the senses while allowing its readers to be seduced by the right kind of camp.. Books rarely are as dishy, clever and elusively charming as this one." PopMatters

With her evocative prose, Pastan matches the hothouse tension of Du Mauriers storywhile infusing Alena with its own hairpin twists and turns and devastating denouement The result is a lyrical murder mystery that is just as tantalizing to those who have never read Rebecca as the many for whom it is a cherished classic." The Brooklyn Eagle

"For people who love Rebecca, there are all kind of allusions and asidesnames, locations and plot points. But Alena stands on its own. BookPage

Pastan builds the tension and mystery with a steady, melancholic tone, entirely gorgeous and entirely her own.Bustle

Fans of Daphne du Mauriers timeless Rebecca will revel in this contemporary homage to her gothic masterpiece. --Booklist

"Riveting... Flush with erotic intrigues... Pastan has written a smart, chilling thriller that leaves readers thoroughly spooked."Publishers Weekly

"This skillfully crafted novel, which sustains the tension of a ghost story, is both an homage to Daphne du Mauriers Rebecca and an insightful meditation on our obsessive preoccupation with deathsimultaneously creepy and entrancing. John Irving

"I was utterly captivated by this novel, as much by the beautifully evoked Cape Cod landscapes and the glimpses into the rarefied world of art as by the increasingly suspenseful mysteries at its center. Rachel Pastan is a marvelous storyteller." Ann Packer, author of The Dive from Clausen's Pier and Swim Back to Me

"In this exquisite reimagining of a much-loved novel, Rachel Pastan weaves together a mystery, a love story, and a meditation on the nature of art." Brian Morton, author of Starting Out in the Evening

Author Bio

Rachel Pastan is the author of two previous novels and has won numerous prizes for her short fiction. A member of the core faculty of the Bennington Writing Seminars, she is also editor-at-large for the Institute of Contemporary Art in Philadelphia. Pastan lives in Swarthmore, Pennsylvania.