Blue Ruin

A novel

By: Hari Kunzru

Narrated by: Hari Kunzru

A MOST ANTICIPATED BOOK • From one of the sharpest voices in fiction today, a profound and enthralling novel about beauty and power, capital, art and those who devote their lives to creating it

Once, Jay was an artist. After graduating from art school in London, he was tipped for greatness, a promising career taking shape before him. That was not to happen. Now, undocumented in the United States, having survived Covid, he lives out of his car and barely makes a living as an essential worker, delivering groceries in a wealthy area of upstate New York. One day, as Jay attempts to make a delivery at a house surrounded by acres of woods, he is confronted by his destructive past: Alice, a former lover from his art school days, and the friend she left him for. Recognizing Jay’s dire circumstances, Alice invites him to stay on their property—where an erratic gallery owner and his girlfriend are isolating as well—setting in motion a reckoning that has been decades in the making.

Gripping and brilliantly orchestrated, Blue Ruin moves back and forth through time, delivering an extraordinary portrait of an artist as he reunites with his past and confronts the world he once loved and left behind.

Art for artists

Hari Kunzru creates a fictional world where an artist must choose over and over again what to create. Amidst the chaos of the world and his own aesthetic the artist weaves his narrative.

Incredible narration

As if his setting, descriptive ability and plotting weren’t enough.. the narration is the icing on the cake. Keep writing. Please.

An excellent dead ringer of the ridiculous depths of the art world

Few if any writers succeed at conveying a believable reconstruction of the contemporary art world. That’s because few people actually get a real look inside it, up close, and get what the hell everyone’s on about. Kunzru is that rare bird that has seen so much of it, seen the pretentious hangups and nuanced class divisions that define its structure so foundationally and in little microcosms of specific moments in time. Can I also add that I never EVER thought I’d read a novel set in pandemic times that I’d enjoy reading and this man has proven me so wrong??? What a master of his art, what a beautiful and searing piece of cultural criticism. What a fantastic narrator he is!! Bravo Mr.Kunzru. Everyone should read this.

Top Notch

First book of Kunzru’s for me. Outstanding work with much poignancy. Will be looking forward to more from him.

The Worst

Man Child Artists cliche. A good representation of what’s pathetic about the art world. Unfortunately accurate.