# Biography of X - Hardcover

by **Catherine Lacey** (Author)

**National Bestseller. A _New York Times Book Review_ Editors' Choice. Named a best book of March by Apple Books and Amazon, and a most anticipated book by _The New York Times_, _Esquire_, _The Guardian_, _Time_, _BuzzFeed_, _Electric Literature_, _Literary Hub_, and _Chicago Review of Books_**  
**"A major novel, and a notably audacious one."** **\--Dwight Garner, _The New York Times_**

**"It feels fairly rare for a novel to be hugely intelligent and moving and fun in equal measure, but with _Biography of X_, Catherine Lacey somehow--magically--makes the nearly impossible look easy."** **\--Lauren Groff**  
**  
From one of our fiercest stylists, a roaring epic chronicling the life, times, and secrets of a notorious artist.**

When X--an iconoclastic artist, writer, and polarizing shape-shifter--falls dead in her office, her widow, CM, wild with grief and refusing everyone's good advice, hurls herself into writing a biography of the woman she deified. Though X was recognized as a crucial creative force of her era, she kept a tight grip on her life story. Not even CM knows where X was born, and in her quest to find out, she opens a Pandora's box of secrets, betrayals, and destruction. All the while, she immerses herself in the history of the Southern Territory, a fascist theocracy that split from the rest of the country after World War II, and which finally, in the present day, is being forced into an uneasy reunification.

A masterfully constructed literary adventure complete with original images assembled by X's widow, _Biography of X_ follows CM as she traces X's peripatetic trajectory over decades, from Europe to the ruins of America's divided territories, and through her collaborations and feuds with everyone from Bowie and Waits to Sontag and Acker. At last, when she finally understands the scope of X's defining artistic project, CM realizes her wife's deceptions were far crueler than she imagined.

Pulsing with suspense and intellect while blending nonfiction and fiction, _Biography of X_ is a roaring epic that plumbs the depths of grief, art, and love. In her most ambitious novel yet, Catherine Lacey pushes her craft to its highest level, introducing us to an unforgettable character who, in her tantalizing mystery, shows us the fallibility of the stories we craft for ourselves.

### Author Biography

**Catherine Lacey** is the author of the novels _Nobody Is Ever Missing_, _The Answers_, and _Pew_, and of the short-story collection _Certain American States_. She has received a Guggenheim Fellowship, a Whiting Award, the New York Public Library's Young Lions Fiction Award, and a New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship. She has been a finalist for the Dylan Thomas Prize and the PEN/Jean Stein Book Award, and was named one of _Granta'_s Best of Young American Novelists. Her essays and short fiction have appeared in _The New Yorker_, _Harper's Magazine_, _The New York Times_, _The Believer,_ and elsewhere. Born in Mississippi, she is based in Chicago, Illinois.

**Number of Pages:** 416

**Dimensions:** 1.31 x 9.29 x 6.33 IN

**Publication Date:** March 21, 2023

## Details

- **Price:** 30.0 USD
- **Vendor:** Books by splitShops
- **Type:** Books
- **Tags:** Books by splitShops, Shopify Collective

## Variants

| Variant | Price | Available |
|---------|-------|-----------|
| Default Title | 30.00 USD | In stock |

## Images

- Biography of X - Hardcover

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