Double or quits

What does it mean to be truly modern, asks this debut novel from a NZ-born author.

-  SUE REIDY

THE MODERN, by Anna Kate Blair (Scribner, $37.99)

Australian art historian Sophia's life from the outside appears to be perfect. She has scored a prestigious two-year fellowship at New York's Museum of Modern Art, chosen from 1000 applicants. Robert, her partner of five years, is applying for Ivy League teaching roles. They live in his family-owned Lower East Side apartment and dine in stylish restaurants.

From the inside, Sophia's life feels less shiny. She is a fellow at an institution where she feels invisible and which demands "absolute allegiance while offering precarity and little acknowledgement". She can't envisage her future beyond MoMA. Being Australian, she will need a potential employer to sponsor a work visa. She is also nudging 30 and has acquired "a half-forgotten PhD and no meaningful publications or exhibitions to my name". Once, she had felt "young and brilliant, brimming with potential ... while at MoMA I felt constantly inadequate".

At the many weddings she attends with Robert, she's inevitably asked about "life future beyond MoMA. Being Australian, she will need a potential employer to sponsor a work visa. She is also nudging 30 and has acquired "a half-forgotten PhD and no meaningful publications or exhibitions to my name". Once, she had felt "young and brilliant, brimming with potential ... while at MoMA I felt constantly inadequate".