All his life, Giovanni Bernini has possessed an uncanny gift: he can imitate anyone he meets. Honed by his mother at a young age, the talent catapults him from small-town obscurity to stardom.
As Giovanni describes it, тАЬNo oneтАЩs disguise is perfect. There is in every person, no matter how graceful, a seam, a thread curling out of them. . . . When pulled by the right hands, it will unravel the person entire.тАЭ As his fame grows, Giovanni encounters a beautiful and enigmatic stage singer, Lucy StarlightтАФthe only person whose thread he cannot findтАФand becomes increasingly trapped inside his many poses. Ultimately, he must assume the one identity he has never been able to master: his own.
In the vein of Jonathan LethemтАЩs and Kevin WilsonтАЩs playful surrealism, Jacob RubinтАЩs The Poser is the debut of a major literary voice, a masterfully written, deeply original comic novel, and the moving story of a man who must risk everything for the chance to save his life and know true love.