Leonora in the Morning Light: A Novel

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*One of Oprah Dailys Most Anticipated Historical Fiction Novels That Will Sweep You Away*

Michaela Carters training as a poet and painter shines through from the first page of this vivid, gorgeous novel based on the lives of Leonora Carrington and Max Ernst. Told with all the wild magic and mystery of the Surrealists themselves, Leonora in the Morning Light fearlessly illuminates the life and work of a formidable female artist. Whitney Scharer, bestselling author of The Age of Light

For fans of Amy Blooms White Houses and Colm Tibns The Master, a gorgeously written, meticulously researched (Jillian Cantor, bestselling author of Half Life) novel about Surrealist artist Leonora Carrington and the art, drama, and romance that defined her coming-of-age during World War II.

1940. A train carrying exiled German prisoners from a labor camp arrives in southern France. Within moments, word spreads that Nazi capture is imminent, and the men flee for the woods, desperate to disappear across the Spanish border. One stays behind, determined to ride the train until he reaches home, to find a woman he refers to simply as her.

1937. Leonora Carrington is a twenty-year-old British socialite and painter when she meets Max Ernst, an older, married artist whose work has captivated Europe. She follows him to Paris, into the vibrant world of studios and cafes where rising visionaries of the Surrealist movement like Andre Breton, Pablo Picasso, Lee Miller, Man Ray, and Salvador Dali are challenging conventional approaches to art and life. Inspired by their freedom, Leonora begins to experiment with her own work, translating vivid stories of her youth onto canvas and gaining recognition under her own name. It is a bright and glorious age of enlightenmentuntil war looms over Europe and headlines emerge denouncing Max and his circle as degenerates, leading to his arrest and imprisonment. Left along as occupation spreads throughout the countryside, Leonora battles terrifying circumstances to survive, reawakening past demons that threaten to consume her.

As Leonora and Max embark on remarkable journeys together and apart, the full story of their tumultuous and passionate love affair unfolds, spanning time and borders as they seek to reunite and reclaim their creative power in a world shattered by war. When their paths cross with Peggy Guggenheim, an art collector and socialite working to help artists escape to America, nothing will be the same.

Based on true events and historical figures, Leonora in the Morning Light is a deeply involving historical tale of tragic lost love, determined survival, the sanctuary of art, and the evolution of a muse into an artist of powerfully provocative feminist expression (Booklist, starred review).

Reviews

ADVANCE PRAISE FOR LEONORA IN THE MORNING LIGHT

Afascinating read that offers insights into the dreamlike work of the artist. . . Michaela Carters rich prose pulled me in, and her haunting portrait of Leonora Carrington kept me turning pages.Nancy Horan, New York Times bestselling author of Under the Wide and Starry Sky and Loving Frank

Gorgeouslywritten, meticulously researched. . . . Michaela Carters poetic style and vivid prose swept me up into this fascinating and beautifully woven story of love and war and art.Jillian Cantor,USA Today bestselling author ofIn Another TimeandHalf Life

Michaela Carter invokes the bohemian intrigues of artistic pre-WWII Paris, and the terrors that ensued, in her riveting story of Leonora Carringtons tumultuous affair with celebrated painter, Max Ernst. . . . Vivid and colorful as her canvases, this novel depicts the conflicted heart of an artist, and a survivor who refused to admit defeat."C.W. Gortner, internationally bestselling authorofMademoiselle Chanel

"Michaela Carter's training as a poet and painter shines through from the first page of this vivid, gorgeous novel based on the lives of Leonora Carrington and Max Ernst. Told with all the wild magic and mystery of the Surrealists themselves, Leonora in the Morning Light fearlessly illuminates the life and work of a formidable female artist."Whitney Scharer, bestselling author of The Age of Light

An extraordinarily researched historical novel about the romanceand heartbreakshared by Surrealists Leonora Carrington and Max Ernst at the dawn of WWII,Leonora in the Morning Lightis both imaginative and riveting. With little prior knowledge of Carrington and her work, I became consumed by her story, as portrayed in Michaela Carters poetic, captivating narrative.Cynthia Swanson,New York Timesbestselling author ofThe BooksellerandThe Glass Forest

Michaela Carter's brilliant new novel is a fully imagined portrait of the sexual and artistic coming of age of a Great Woman. Leonora in the Morning Light is breathtaking and bold, formidably well researched and entrancingly beautiful."Kate Christensen, PEN/Faulkner award-winning author of The Great Man and The Last Cruise

Deeply empathic. . . . Carter has written a refulgent and deeply involving historical tale of tragic lost love, determined survival, the sanctuary of art, and the evolution of a muse into an artist of powerfully provocative feminist expression.Booklist (Starred Review)

A satisfying historical novel about love, art, and war. . .Carter meditates beautifully on the unique difficulties of being a woman artist."Kirkus Reviews

Author Bio

Michaela Carter is a writer, painter, and an award-winning poet. Her novelFurther Out Than You Thoughtwas an Arizona Republic Recommends and AZ Centrals Best critics pick for 2014. Her poetry won the Poetry Society of America, Los Angeles, New Poets Prize, has been nominated for Pushcart Prizes, and has appeared in numerous anthologies and journals. She is the cofounder of the independent bookstore The Peregrine Book Company, where she works as a buyer. She lives in Prescott, Arizona, with her husband and two dogs, and she can be visited on the web at MichaelaCarter.com.