Fitch's passion for history's grand narratives and potent themes evolved into a desire to write fiction, seeking to capture the immediacy of lived experience. Her novels often explore the coming-of-age journey of young individuals grappling with identity amidst significant historical and personal upheavals. Fitch crafts compelling portraits of characters navigating complex emotional landscapes and societal shifts with a distinctive narrative voice. She is celebrated for her ability to weave profound psychological insight with immersive storytelling, bringing historical periods and personal struggles vividly to life.
"Brilliant...a world of furious beauty, sprawling, majestic landscapes, and erotically charged and traumatic encounters, with life and love hanging in the balance"-- Los Angeles Review of BooksThe epic journey continues... A young Russian woman comes into her own in the midst of revolution and civil war.
Josie Tyrell, art model, teen runaway, and denizen of LA's 1980 punk rock scene, finds a chance at real love with art student Michael Faraday. A Harvard dropout and son of a renowned pianist, Michael introduces her to a world of sophistication, and to his spiritual quest for the beauty that shines through everyday experience. But when she receives a call from the Los Angeles County Coroner asking her to identify her lover's dead body, her bright dreams fade to black. 'What happens to a dream when the dreamer is gone?' Josie finds herself drawn into a twisted relationship with Michael's pianist mother, Meredith, that reflects equal parts distrust and blind need. Passionate, wounded, fiercely alive, Josie Tyrell walks the brink of her own destruction as she fights to discover what is left of the brilliant vision of the future she and Michael once nurtured together. With the luxurious prose and fever pitch intensity that are her hallmarks, Janet Fitch has written a spellbinding new novel about love and betrayal.