Jane Bowles wrote only one novel, a play, and just over a dozen short stories. But these were enough to establish her reputation as one of the twentieth century's most original fiction writers. Born in New York City in 1917, she later married the author Paul Bowles. At the age of forty, she suffered a debilitating stroke, which brought an early end to her writing. She died in 1973.

"My favorite book. I can't think of a modern novel that seems more likely to become a classic." --Tennessee Williams

"What distinguishes Bowles's work--what animates those strange, angular sentences, with their unexpected rhythms and turns of phrase and rabid energy--isn't its interest in nonconformity but its obsession with spiritual transformation." --Nicole Flattery, Harper's Magazine

"Bowles's spare, elliptical prose has a hallucinatory quality, pierced by moments of startling clarity and wit. Her characters retain a sphinx-like opacity, as unsettling as it is engrossing." --Lettie Ransley, The Guardian

"The book's strangeness is compounded by a conspicuous, glorious lack of description and explanation. Characters and surroundings are rendered artfully, minimally, bestowing the gift of mystery to the reader." --Kathryn Scanlan, Granta

Publisher: Picador USA

Pub date: 2025-08-26

Length: 272 pages