Watermark Books and Cafe

Sheila Kohler’s writing has been heralded by Amy Tan as, “elegant, smooth, and gorgeously sensual, belying the tension that crackles beneath.” Kohler is the author of ten books, and her novel Cracks was made into a film starring Eva Green. Her new novel, THE BAY OF FOXES , has everything you’ve come to expect from her work. The psychological insight and narrative skill that prompted Kirkus to call her, “A real master of narrative” are both here, but THE BAY OF FOXES also introduces a sexy, sinister plot that is in part an homage to Patricia Highsmith’s Ripley novels. Sitting in a chic Parisian café in 1978, Dawit, a young and attractive Ethiopian refugee, spots the famous French author M. At sixty she is at the height of her fame, elegant and striking. Dawit, the educated son of wealthy parents, fled his country in the wake of civil and military unrest. Now he lives in squalor, his talents unrecognized as he roams the streets of Paris until this chance encounter changes his life. M. invites Dawit into her home, and it is there that he comes to know all about her life, her work, and her desires. Soon, he is accompanying M. to her Sardinian villa, beside Cala di Volpe—the Bay of Foxes—where Dawit finds love, temptation and perfects the art of deception. About the author: Sheila Kohler was born in Johannesburg, South Africa. She currently teaches at Princeton University and Bennington College. Becoming Jane Eyre, her seventh novel, was her first book for Penguin. Her work has been included in the Best American Short Stories, and she has two O’Henry Prizes, an Open Fiction Award, a Willa Cather Prize, and a Smart Family Foundation Prize. She has been published in nine countries and now resides in New York City.