The Cloisters
The Secret History for a new generation – an instant Sunday Times bestseller
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3.8 • 16 Ratings
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- £4.99
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- £4.99
Publisher Description
THE SUNDAY TIMES TOP 5 BESTSELLER . . . IN HARDBACK AND NOW IN PAPERBACK!
The Secret History meets Ninth House . . . the discovery of a mysterious deck of tarot cards lays bare shocking secrets within a close-knit circle of researchers at New York's famed Met Cloisters museum.
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'Glamour, power, seduction, ambition – The Cloisters has it all. I adored this deliciously gothic, beautifully written novel.' LOUISE O'NEILL,
'Dark and enigmatic . . . a story of academic obsession, Renaissance magic and the ruthless pursuit of power. Captivating in every sense.' SARAH PEARSE
'Elegant and atmospheric and suffused with brooding menace.' LUCY CLARKE
'Sultry and sinister . . . teems with sexual tension, the secrets of divination, and scholarly obsessiveness . . . jaw-dropping.' SARAH PENNER
‘Beguiling and atmospheric, an entrancing and gripping tale.’ KATE MOSSE
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Ann Stilwell arrives in New York City, hoping to spend her summer working at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Instead, she is assigned to The Cloisters, a gothic museum and garden renowned for its collection of medieval and Renaissance art.
Drawn into a small circle of charismatic but enigmatic researchers, Ann happy to indulge some of their more outlandish theories, including the museum's curator who is fixated on tarot and the real possibility of predicting the future.
But when Ann discovers a mysterious, once-thought lost deck of 15th-century Italian tarot cards she finds herself at the centre of a dangerous game of power, toxic friendship and ambition.
And as the game being played within the Cloisters spirals out of control, Ann must decide who she trusts . . .
The instant Sunday Times bestseller, January 2023
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Hays debuts with a moody and suspenseful story of a floundering art history graduate. Though Ann Stillwell has been unsuccessful in pursuing a grad school offer, she nevertheless lands a coveted summer internship at the Metropolitan Museum of Art—but upon arrival, she learns the offer has been rescinded. Ann then hears of a vacancy at the Cloisters, where she joins the beautiful and supremely competent Rachel Mondray in assisting head curator Patrick Roland on a research project related to the tarot, which, according to Patrick's hypothesis, has much older ties to the occult than scholars had previously assumed. Ann is dazzled by Rachel's wealth, and a quick, intense friendship develops as she is drawn into the research, though she's increasingly unnerved by Patrick's fervor and seeming belief in the occult. Hays carefully leaves the supernatural elements open to interpretation, and Ann's summer is ultimately shaped by a tragedy with a traceably human cause. Readers will be fascinated by the evocative setting as well as the behind-the-scenes glimpses into museum curatorship and the cutthroat games of academia. It makes for an accomplished debut.
