Double Blind

Double Blind is the masterful new novel from Edward St. Aubyn: an ambitious, thrilling synthesis of art, science, and philosophy that explores some of the biggest ideas and most pressing questions of our times. Following three friends and their circle through a year of transformation, and moving between London, Oxford, Cap d'Antibes, Big Sur, and a rewilded corner of Sussex, it is about the headlong pursuit of knowledge – for the purposes of pleasure, revelation, money, sanity, or survival—and the consequences of fleeing what we already know about others and ourselves. When Olivia meets a new lover, Francis, just as she is welcoming her dearest friend Lucy back from New York, her dedicated academic life expands precipitously. Her connection to Francis, a committed naturalist living off-grid, is immediate and startling. Eager to involve Lucy in her joy, Olivia introduces the two—but Lucy has news of her own that binds the trio unusually close. Over...