Exquisite Corpse

Set against the war-scarred backdrop of London, Paris, and Munich in the 1940s and 1950s, Robert Irwin's "Exquisite Corpse" plunges into the disorienting world of Casper, a mediocre surrealist painter. Casper, based in London, develops a profound and irrational obsession with a woman so unremarkable she strikes him as profoundly exotic. This peculiar fascination quickly spirals into a fervent, all-consuming quest when his muse inexplicably vanishes. What begins as a love story rapidly morphs into a darkly comic mystery and a deep dive into the unsettling realms of surrealism and the human imagination. As Casper pursues her across Europe, his journey becomes a 'picaresque nightmare' – a blur of fact and fiction, Freudian analysis, and bizarre encounters, far more absurd and intricate than any canvas he could ever conceive. The novel deftly weaves together intellectual musings with a compelling narrative, challenging perceptions of reality and art itself.