Wet Paint follows Eve, a 26-year-old woman who, if you asked how she was, would tell you she’s fine. She’s been scraping along waiting tables and cleaning her shared flat in exchange for cheap rent. She finds solace in her small routines, among them her weekly visits to the Courtauld Gallery to see Manet’s barmaid, who’s almost her de facto therapist. Since the death of her best friend, she’s learned to keep everything and everyone at arm’s length. But there are painful memories she can’t shake, and it’s not long before her precariously maintained life begins to unravel. She takes up life-modelling in a misguided bid for empowerment, and lays bare her body while keeping hidden the mounting chaos inside her head. As her self-destructive urges spiral out of control, she’s forced to confront her trauma.

Chloë Ashby is an author and arts journalist. Since graduating from the Courtauld Institute of Art, she’s written for publications such as the TLS, Guardian, FT Life & Arts, Spectator, and frieze. She is the author of Look At This If You Love Great Art (Ivy Press; June 2021) and Colours of Art: The Story of Art in 80 Palettes (Frances Lincoln; August 2022). Wet Paint (Trapeze; April 2022) is her first novel

• Publisher ‏ : ‎ Trapeze (14 April 2022)
• Language ‏ : ‎ English
• ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1398702981
• Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 16.2 x 3.6 x 24 cm