The Poser — Jacob Rubin

A hilarious and dazzling debut novel about a master impressionist at risk of losing his true self

All his life, Giovanni Bernini has possessed an uncanny gift: he can imitate anyone he meets. Honed by his mother at a young age, the talent catapults him from small-town obscurity to stardom.

As Giovanni describes it, “No one's disguise is perfect. There is in every person, no matter how graceful, a seam, a thread curling out of them.... When pulled by the right hands, it will unravel the person entire.” As his fame grows, Giovanni encounters a beautiful and enigmatic stage singer, Lucy Starlight -- the only person whose thread he cannot find -- and becomes increasingly trapped inside his many poses. Ultimately, he must assume the one identity he has never been able to master: his own.

In the vein of Jonathan Lethem's and Kevin Wilson's playful surrealism, Jacob Rubin's "The Poser" is the debut of a major literary voice, a masterfully written, deeply original comic novel, and the moving story of a man who must risk everything for the chance to save his life and know true love.