Adam and Leonora

Adam Sinclair is a reclusive surrealist painter, in search of his muse and obsessed with his visions, who lives in a vast artist’s compound in the Santa Cruz mountains. Leonora Bloom is an artist and scientist who isn’t sure why she is so drawn to a man she’s never met yet can’t shake her obsession with him. After years of hiking the ridge above Adam’s property, she finally knocks on his door.

Inside Adam’s house, enormous paintings of golden spirals, cosmic stars, and cobalt universes cover the walls, vibrating with energy and mystery—and though he is aloof, the chemistry between him and Leonora is immediate. When the younger woman catches a glimpse of an old black-and-white photograph of his deceased wife, Pauline, who could be her twin, she begins to understand why.

Interwoven with Leonora’s tale are the voices of modern-day Don Quixote Adam’s muses: Pauline, a talented writer who lives in both 1940s New York City and Mexico; and Mimi Saucier, a sultry singer from 1930s Paris. The two women play off characters of the Surrealist movement including André Breton, Remedios Varo, and Wolfgang Paalen, creating worlds of dreamy enchantment. Filled with intrigue and tension, secrets and admissions, and the colorful imagery of a painter’s mind, Adam and Leonora explores Leonora’s quest to discover Adam’s secret to the creative pulse of life—a journey into the surreal.


Genre: Historical

"Jameson has written a wonderful novel, layered with romantic escapades and philosophical musings on Art and Life. She deftly handles different places and historical time periods from Paris on the cusp of war, to New York, Mexico, and Los Angeles. Adam is the archetypal male artist, a modern Don Quixote in search of the Ideal, while Andre Breton, as Sancho Panza, offers counsel that fluctuates between brilliance and buffoonery. The women - Pauline, Mimi, and Leonora - are visionary artists in their own right. Adam and Leonora is executed in a fluid literary style reminiscent of the great studies of human folly." - Summer Brenner

"I 'watched' this novel as if I were viewing a Bunuel film, delighted and surprised by the quick geographic and emotional twists, and by a take on romance (mad love!) that characterizes the best of surrealism." - Owen Hill

"Carol Jameson has a rare talent for delight. In reanimating past artists, poets, and lovers, she snares them in a Midsummer Night's Dream of pure storytelling intoxication. Even her Andre Breton is halfway loveable!" - Jonathan Lethem

"An ambitious blend of fiction and art history, author Carol Jameson explores the powerful and often provocative role that dreams can play in everyday life. Fans of surrealism are sure to enjoy." - Victoria Lilienthal