Author(s): Deborah Levy

General Fiction

The mesmerising new novel from the twice Booker-shortlisted author of Hot Milk and Swimming Home

'If she was my double and I was hers, was it true that she was knowing, I was unknowing, she was sane, I was crazy, she was wise, I was foolish? That summer, the air was electric between us as we transmitted our feelings to each other across three countries.'

Elsa M. Anderson is a classical piano virtuoso. In a flea market in Athens, she watches an enigmatic woman buy two mechanical dancing horses. Is it possible that the woman who is so enchanted with the horses is her living double? Is she also looking for reasons to live?

Chasing their doubles across Europe, the two women grapple with their conceptions of the world and each other, culminating in a final encounter in a fateful summer rainstorm.

A vivid portrait of a long-held identity coming apart, August Blue expands our understanding of the ways in which we seek to find ourselves in others and create ourselves anew.

Praise for Deborah Levy's 'Living Autobiography':

'Her reflections on domesticity, freedom and romance are so beautiful, I found myself underlining multiple sentences a page. Wry, warm and uplifting, it's a book I'll return to again and again' Stylist

'[Levy's living autobiography series is] a glittering triple echo of books that are as much philosophical discourse as a manifesto for living and writing' - Financial Times

Matilda Bookshop Review

Every novel by Levy is a new revelation, and in this latest, Levy evokes effortlessly the sense of wonder, freefall and transformation that occurs every now and again in the course of a life when we act bravely outside of ourselves. A brilliant concert pianist walks off the stage mid-performance at the height of her career, and after fleeing to Athens, her present and future collide vertiginously when she witnesses her almost double in a flea market. Here is a woman reckoning with a life of music and discipline versus autonomy and pleasure, while reimagining a new story for herself. I was transfixed by every sentence. Molly