Frida

'The portrait of a fascinating, eccentric, and indomitable woman . . . an incandescent novel' Elle

* Winner of Elle France's Grand Prix Des Lectrices *

Translated into English for the first time, Claire Berest's award-winning novel is a striking fictional imagining of the vibrant life of one of the world's most enigmatic and beloved artists: Frida Kahlo.

I suffered two grave accidents in my life, one in which a streetcar knocked me down. . . . The other accident is Diego.

Frida doesn't speak, she yells. She curses like a sailor, and demonstrates with the communists on the streets of Mexico City. She likes drinking tequila, putting flowers in her hair, talking crudely about sex, and parties that wake the dead. Even when her body is wracked with pain, she paints.

Frida's greatest vice is Diego, the love of her life - and the most famous artist in Mexico.

A man who is as hard to live with, as he is to be without.

*

'No author has yet captured Frida's tragic life in words as sensually and passionately as this' Grazia

'Claire Berest writes as captivatingly and vividly as Frida Kahlo painted' Paris Match

'[Berest] recounts the passion, art and torment of this long-suffering painter, a magician of colours and priestess of liberated femininity' Les Inrocks