Ann Stilwell moves to New York for a summer internship at The Cloisters, a medieval museum wing of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. She finds herself drawn into the orbit of a charismatic curator, Patrick Roland, and a sophisticated researcher, Rachel Mondray. The group focuses their academic energy on a cache of fifteenth-century tarot cards that might predate known historical records. As their research shifts from academic inquiry to obsessive attempts at divination, Ann uncovers dark professional competition and hidden motives involving old money and lethal secrets.
Scholars of art history and fans of dark academia read this novel to experience the claustrophobic atmosphere of elite intellectual institutions. It appeals to those fascinated by the intersection of botanical poisons, medieval occultism, and the ethics of museum curation. Readers finish the book with a cynical perspective on academic ambition and the lengths individuals go to control their own fates through historical discovery.
Clear-cut and escapist; an easy read.
Best for readers like The Curious Generalist. Which reader are you?
- Published
- 2022
- Language
- EN
