Characters from the artist Balthus’ painting walk out of the canvas and take on lives of their own, sharing spaces in an ancient chateau. ‘Auguste has only one eye. No one knows where the other is, and Auguste himself isn’t telling … the Countess feels her blue blood bruised, contagion breaking out upon it like potato-mould … the Professor dreams he is a large white cat in a dark cellar infested with rats … the concierge spends her sleepless nights talking to Madame Berry who lives in another century … there is the sound of sobbing, which echoes between rooms and across years; there is desire stretched so taut the page seems to vibrate with it, and the pain of lives where desire is no longer allowed'; first published in 1995; inscribed by the author in 1997.
