'One of my stand-out Australian reads from 2016 . . . A glorious novel, meditative and special' Hannah Kent, author of BURIAL RITESArky Levin, a film composer in New York, has promised his wife that he will not visit her in hospital, where she is suffering in the final stages of a terminal illness.

She wants to spare him a burden that would curtail his creativity, but the promise is tearing him apart. One day he finds his way to MOMA and sees Mariana Abramovic in The Artist is Present. The performance continues for seventy-five days and, as it unfolds, so does Arky.

As he watches and meets other people drawn to the exhibit, he slowly starts to understand what might be missing in his life and what he must do.