Violet Hour

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A01=James Cahill
Alan Hollinghurst
ambition gone wrong
Author_James Cahill
books about art dealers
Category=ABQ
Category=AFC
Category=FBA
Category=FXD
Category=FXN
contemporary art world
Donna Tartt
eq_art-fashion-photography
eq_bestseller
eq_fiction
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eq_isMigrated=2
eq_modern-contemporary
eq_new_release
eq_nobargain
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Product details

  • ISBN 9781399716208
  • Weight: 260g
  • Dimensions: 128 x 196mm
  • Publication Date: 12 Feb 2026
  • Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton
  • Publication City/Country: GB
  • Product Form: Paperback
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'An enthrallingly intricate novel . . . impressive'
GUARDIAN

'There's something of F. Scott Fitzgerald about the way Cahill writes about the very rich'
DAILY MAIL

'A biting satire of the art world's glamour, pomp and greed . . . lucid and evocative'
DAILY TELEGRAPH

'The real deal . . . The Violet Hour offers a convincing and compelling portrait of a very rarefied world'
NEW YORK TIMES

'A highbrow whodunnit, and grippingly so, but it's much more than that'
PATRICK GALE, author of Mother's Boy

'It's brilliant . . . the human drama of it is just pitch perfect . . . Hypnotic'
SEÁN HEWITT, author of All Down Darkness Wide

Thomas Haller has achieved the kind of fame that most artists only dream of: shows in London and New York, paintings sold for a fortune. The vision he presents to the world is one of an untouchable genius at the top of his game. It is also a lie.

Who is the real Thomas Haller? His oldest friend and former dealer, Lorna, might once have known - before Thomas traded their early intimacy for international fame. Between his ruthless new dealer and a property mogul obsessed with his work, the appetite for Thomas and his art is all-consuming.

On the eve of his latest show, the luminaries of the art world gather. But the sudden death of a young man has put everyone on edge, and a chain of events begins that will lead Thomas and Lorna back into the past, to confront who they have become.

A story of deception, power play and longing, The Violet Hour exposes the unsettling underbelly of the art world, asking: who is granted admission to a world that only seems to glitter and who is left outside, their faces pressed to the glass?

James Cahill has worked in the art world and academia for fifteen years. His debut novel, Tiepolo Blue, was shortlisted for the Authors' Club Best First Novel Award, and his writing has been published in Artforum, the Los Angeles Review of Books, the London Review of Books, the Spectator, the Times Literary Supplement and the Daily Telegraph, among others. James divides his time between London and Los Angeles.

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