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  • Published: 22 August 2012
  • ISBN: 9780241961407
  • Imprint: Penguin eBooks
  • Format: EBook
  • Pages: 288

The Jump Artist




A prize-winning debut novel about one of the twentieth century's most iconic artists - and a murder trial that shook Europe

Austria, 1928. A young man stands unjustly accused of murdering his father. Albert Einstein and Thomas Mann speak out on his behalf. Sigmund Freud is called to testify. The trial that ensues, in which he tries to clear his name, sends shockwaves throughout Europe. In this crucible of injustice and grief, one of the greatest artists of the twentieth century is formed.

From prison cell and psychological trauma to bohemian Paris at its height and Europe on the eve of war, from tragedy and injustice to freedom and, eventually, to fame, this is the story of The Jump Artist.

In this superbly crafted, prize-winning novel, Austin Ratner recreates the remarkable true story of Philippe Halsman, a photographer whose portraits of some of the greatest names of our times - Dalí, Einstein and Monroe among them - ensured his enduring fame, but whose renown masked a shocking tragedy that haunted him throughout his life, and a remarkable journey from darkness into the light...

  • Published: 22 August 2012
  • ISBN: 9780241961407
  • Imprint: Penguin eBooks
  • Format: EBook
  • Pages: 288

Praise for The Jump Artist

A bold and wondrous combination of dark history and beautifully delicate psychology

A D Miller, author of Booker Prize shortlisted Snowdrops

In The Jump Artist Austin Ratner gives life to a story both emblematic of the horror at the heart of the 20th century and absolutely personal in its particulars - the extraordinary life of Philippe Halsman. A terrific debut

Anna Funder, author of Stasiland

A remarkable work [that] documents a triumph of the human spirit over tremendous adversity

Harper's

Tremendous resonance ... one of the most promising debuts of the year

Publishers Weekly

Subtle, moving ... has the pace and excitement of a legal drama

The Forward

A beautifully scrupulous, intricately detailed novel about joy and despair ... like a great photograph, it seems to miss nothing, and to catch its subject in all his complexity

Charles Baxter, author of The Soul Thief