CHRISTINE LEUNENS

CAGING SKIES
Nominated for the Prix Medicis 2007

'The best part of this interesting novel is its ability to show parts of our history which others dismiss: why suffering can make some people more sensitive but others more cruel, and how a war, such an outrage to human dignity, blurs the line between victorious and defeated.' ELLE

'It's difficult to believe that Christine Leunens has ever had an ugliness complex. With her past as a model, and a critically acclaimed first novel in England, the author is introduced for the first time to Spanish readers with her novel CAGING SKIES, a complex story of 'dark love' set in Vienna during Second World War in which the subjects of beauty and ugliness are very present.' El Pais

"Little by little, Elsa leaked out of her enclosure, strayed out into every corner of the house. The table was two floors below her and on the opposite side of the room and even there she disturbed me, made her presence felt. In my bed at night, she switched places with me, she enjoying the softness of my bed and I finding myself cramped up in her airless niche."

This extraordinary novel is seen through the eyes of Johannes. An avid member of the Hitler Youth in the 1940s, he discovers his parents are hiding a Jewish girl called Elsa behind a false wall in their large house in Vienna. His initial horror turns to interest, then love and obsession. After the disappearance of his parents, Johannes finds he is the only one aware of Elsa's existence in the house, the only one responsible for her survival. Both manipulating and manipulated, Johannes dreads the end of the war: with it will come the prospect of losing Elsa and their relationship, which ranges through passion and obsession, dependence and indifference, love and hate. This gripping, masterful work examines truth and lies at both political and personal levels, laying bare the darkest corners of the human soul. An inimitable book that builds upon Leunens' darkly comic and highly acclaimed first novel, PRIMORDIAL SOUP (Dedalus, 1999 - 'a remarkable debut novel...' Sunday Times; 'highly original', Cosmopolitan
'a small masterpiece.' Marie-Claire).


Material: Finished copies (404 pages).

Sales: Planeta Spain; Columna Catalan; Meridiano Zero Italy; Talpress Czech Republic; Editions Philippe Rey France; Random House New Zealand.

CHRISTINE LEUNENS, originally Belgian-American, the grand-daughter of famous Belgian painter Guillaume Leunens, moved to France whilst still young. and became a top international model, the face of Givenchy, Paco Rabanne,
Nina Ricci, Mercedes Benz and House of Fraser. She has a Masters Degree in
English and American Literature and Language from Harvard University. Her
first novel, Primordial Soup (1999) published in the UK was described by the
Sunday Times as 'a remarkable debut novel'. An earlier version of Caging
Skies has been published in Spanish, Catalan, Italian and French, and the
latter edition was shortlisted for the Prix Médicis and the Prix FNAC
awards. Christine and her family now live in New Zealand where she is
working on her third novel.




Author photograph by Tanguy de Montesson