The true story of a love affair between two extraordinary women becomes a literary tour deforce in this novel that recreates the surrealist movement in Paris and the horrors of the two world wars with a singular incandescence and intimacy.
ABOUT RUPERT THOMSON:
Rupert Thomson is the author of nine highly acclaimed novels, including Secrecy; The Insult, which was shortlisted for the Guardian Fiction Prize and selected by David Bowie as one of his 100 Must-Read Books of All Time; The Book of Revelation, which was made into a feature film by Ana Kokkinos; and Death of a Murderer, which was shortlisted for the Costa Novel of the Year Award. His memoir, This Party’s Got to Stop, was named Writers’ Guild Non-Fiction Book of the Year. He lives in London.
ABOUT THE BOOK:
In the years preceding World War I, two young women meet, by chance, in a provincial town in France. Suzanne Malherbe, a shy seventeen-year-old with a talent for drawing, is completely entranced by the brilliant but troubled Lucie Schwob, who comes from a family of wealthy Jewish intellectuals. They embark on a clandestine love affair, terrified they will be discovered, but then, in an astonishing twist of fate, the mother of one marries the father of the other. As “sisters” they are finally free of suspicion, and, hungry for a more stimulating milieu, they move to Paris at a moment when art, literature, and politics blend in an explosive cocktail. Having reinvented themselves as Claude Cahun and Marcel Moore, they move in the most glamorous social circles, meeting everyone from Hemingway and Dalí to André Breton, and produce provocative photographs that still seem avant-garde today. In the 1930s, with the rise of anti-Semitism and threat of fascism, they leave Paris for Jersey, and it is on this idyllic island that they confront their destiny, creating a campaign of propaganda against Hitler’s occupying forces that will put their lives in jeopardy. Brilliantly imagined, profoundly thought-provoking, and ultimately heartbreaking, Never Anyone But You infuses life into a forgotten history as only great literature can.
PRAISE FOR THE BOOK:
One of Nylon’s “46 Great Books To Read This Summer”
“Sleek, lush…an extraordinary and rollicking tale…Cahun and Moore’s is a beautiful love story that deserves to be better known.” —Harper’s
“Though knowing that Cahun and Moore were real people adds a keen edge to the novel’s power, it is Thomson’s brilliant writing and ability to evoke the love and commitment these two women had toward each other and toward their principles that will stay with you…[an] extraordinary, inspiring, heart-breaking tale.” —Nylon
“A dazzlingly gifted writer…David Bowie was a big Thomson fan and you get a feeling he’d have loved this atmospheric tale of an affair between two young women in 1920s and 30s Paris.” —The Guardian
“Evocative…In this seamless and comprehensive tale, Thomson shines a light on two impressive and memorable life stories.” —Publishers Weekly
“An intense clandestine love affair between two Frenchwomen during the first half of the twentieth century spans art and literature, war and imprisonment, madness and devotion…beguiling.” —Kirkus Reviews
“With a dash of Midnight in Paris and a hint of Annie Barrows and Mary Ann Shaffer’s The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society, this part love story, part thriller is sure to captivate.” —Library Journal
“Readers enamored of Paris in its artistic and literary heyday and curious about overlooked historical women and members of the LGBT community will be moved by Thomson’s lovely, quietly powerful novel of reinvention in many forms.” —Booklist
“A richly imagined work of historical fiction that succeeds in capturing the essence of each distinct period…captivating and heartfelt.” —Shelf Awareness
“Wrought with deft beauty…the novel bears witness to the power to effect change through love.” —Kenyon Review
“A beautiful and extraordinary book, strange and moving and (as always with Rupert Thomson) quite unlike anything else…It’s a long time since I read a love story quite so convincing and truthful, and the background of the artistic avant-garde in the twenties and thirties is brilliantly evoked. But the fragrance (I can only think of it as a fragrance, like some old perfume such as Mitsouko) of the love affair emerges from the pages as if the very paper is suffused with it…A great novel.” —Philip Pullman, author of the bestselling His Dark Materials trilogy
“In prose so sharp it glitters, Rupert Thomson reveals in fiction what inevitably remains hidden in nonfiction—lived experience. Through the measured but incisive voice of Suzanne Malherbe, the reader enters the intimate world of two life-long lovers, artistic collaborators, and anti-Nazi rebels who left behind a haunting photographic legacy. After I finished this acute and tender book, I felt that two fascinating ghosts had become real.” —Siri Hustvedt, author of The Blazing World
“In this novel about Claude Cahun and Marcel Moore, Rupert Thomson tells the thrilling story of how, fusing love and art, one of the great collaborative partnerships of the twentieth century mounted an unthinkably brave, largely unsung campaign of political witness and resistance. The voice Thomson gives Marcel is a brilliant invention: flashes of poetry trouble the patina of its self-control, intimations of the wildness and terror of genius.” —Garth Greenwell, author of What Belongs to You
“Hands down, Rupert Thomson is one of my favorite writers of all time. I impatiently wait for his new novels and he never disappoints. The atmospheric Never Anyone But You is exquisitely crafted and pulls you deep into the love affair of two extraordinary women. Magnificent. As always.” —Andrea Wulf, author of The Invention of Nature
“Never Anyone But You puts a hidden piece of history into its long-overdue place in the spotlight. Rupert Thomson deftly weaves a story that spans several decades—the Paris Surrealists, Nazi-occupied Jersey, heroic acts of resistance, and intense and enduring (and forbidden) love—into one seamless whole. Nail-bitingly tense and incredibly moving.” —Monica Ali, author of Brick Lane