Adam and Leonora: A Novel

Adam Sinclair is a reclusive surrealist painter, in search of his muse and obsessed with his visions, who lives in a vast artist’s compound in the Santa Cruz mountains. Leonora Bloom is an artist and scientist who isn’t sure why she is so drawn to a man she’s never met yet can’t shake her obsession with him. After years of hiking the ridge above Adam’s property, she finally knocks on his door. Inside Adam’s house, enormous paintings of golden spirals, cosmic stars, and cobalt universes cover the walls, vibrating with energy and mystery—and though he is aloof, the chemistry between him and Leonora is immediate. When the younger woman catches a glimpse of an old black-and-white photograph of his deceased wife, Pauline, who could be her twin, she begins to understand why. Interwoven with Leonora’s tale are the voices of modern-day Don Quixote Adam’s muses: Pauline, a talented writer who lives in both 1940s New York City and Mexico; and Mimi Saucier, a sultry singer from 1930s Paris. The two women play off characters of the Surrealist movement including André Breton, Remedios Varo, and Wolfgang Paalen, creating worlds of dreamy enchantment. Filled with intrigue and tension, secrets and admissions, and the colorful imagery of a painter’s mind, Adam and Leonora explores Leonora’s quest to discover Adam’s secret to the creative pulse of life—a journey into the surreal.