Life Drawing by Emily Lighezzol

An award-winning and provocative novel about women’s bodies, sex, autonomy - and the power of the image.

Hypothetically, would you want to live forever but invisible, or a short life seen? Hypothetically, would you give up wine forever or sex for ten years? Hypothetically, would you show a friend someone else’s nude?

Maisie and Charlie meet at a life-drawing session as undergraduates: she’s the model, he’s an artist. Their immediate connection carries them across two decades as they navigate the slippery dynamics of friendship, estrangement and family.

Maisie’s story is every woman’s, and Emily Lighezzolo’s bold debut interrogates the collision of art and gaze, desire and consent, muse and meaning. This is a love story. At its core: a woman’s body - seen, touched, loved, hated, commodified and reclaimed. Life Drawing is an award-winning and unflinching novel for our times.