Deborah Levy's ninth novel, a blend of fiction and biography, offers a portrait of modernist writer and art collector Gertrude Stein. The audiobook, narrated by Kristin Atherton, is 3 hours and 54 minutes long and is available through Penguin.
The story follows an unnamed British author living in Paris in late 2024, who is attempting to write an essay on Stein. The narrator, an admirer of Stein's work, reflects on Stein's life and her own friendships.
The novel depicts Stein as fearless and innovative, with the author noting that Stein was "so forward-looking that she never learned to reverse her Ford Model T." Stein, born in Pennsylvania, was known for her stream-of-consciousness prose and for associating with figures like Picasso and Hemingway. Commercial success for Stein did not arrive until she was in her 60s with The Autobiography of Alice B Toklas.