The famed writer Stephen Grane is traveling to a German clinic in search of a cure for the tuberculosis that threatens his life. Knowing if may be his lst chance, he dictates "The Painted Boy" a story inspired by a real-life encounter. But as the story delves into the seedy underworld of turn-of-the-century Manhattan, Crane's health deteriorates and its outcome becomes as critical as the author's life itself.
"Marvellously compelling and moving...one of the finest things White has yet written"
--Guardian--
"Edmund White is one of the most virtuosic living writers of sentences in the English language"
--Dave Eggers--