Sylvia

A young couple’s tumultuous relationship is chronicled from beginning to end in this novel by “one of the strongest and most arresting prose talents of his generation” (Larry McMurtry).

“His every page reveals the mark of an extraordinarily original and gifted talent.” —William Styron

First acclaimed as a story-length memoir, then expanded into a novel, Sylvia draws us into the lives of a young couple whose struggle to survive Manhattan in the early 1960s involves them in sexual fantasies, paranoia, drugs, and the extreme intimacy of self-destructive violence.

Sylvia reproduces a time and place with extraordinary clarity, and explores the excruciating particulars of a youthful marriage headed for disaster.

“The shock of reading [Sylvia] is a bit like one’s childhood reading of Daphne du Maurier’s Rebecca. . . . Above all, this is a chilling portrait of the desperation and delusions of people entrapped in situations they can’t see beyond.” —Diane Johnson, from the introduction

“Leonard Michael’s tersely lyrical prose is as beautifully honed as that of any contemporary novelist who comes to mind.” —Francine du Plessix Gray