FROM THE BOOKER PRIZE-SHORTLISTED AUTHOR OF THE LONG TAKE

Beginning in Venice in the mid-18th century, this original and remarkable book takes in the decline and fall of the Venetian Empire, the convulsions of the French Revolution and the disintegration of Spain – war and displacement throughout Europe, plague and famine – as we follow the hidden lives, the private art, of three artists: Tiepolo, Piranesi and, in particular, Goya.

Amid this turmoil, trying to make sense of rapid change, of ruination, these three are joined from the margins by a strange figure, Nell – a refugee, an observer, an idiot savant, a Pulcinella, a Fool or Trickster – whose very mutability seems to secure his survival in this shifting world.

A multi-voiced hybrid, Days of Drowning is a new way of telling a story. A prose narrative with the dense music of poetry, a biographical study of three artists, an historical novel, a book about ageing – a story of pandemics, wars and revolutions, dynasties and dictators, power, corruption and social collapse that speaks – vividly – to our current moment.