A literary triumph of love and loneliness, war and art, but also a loving tribute to The Great Gatsby, Killing Commendatore is a stunning work of fiction by one of the greatest writers of our time.

Paintings are strange things: As they near completion, they acquire their own will, their own perspective, even their own speaking abilities. They tell the artist when they are finished (at least that's how it works with me). 

Someone watching as a spectator—if anyone is present—cannot understand the difference between a painting in progress and a completed painting, because the boundary is practically invisible to the naked eye. However, the artist knows. He or she can hear the painting saying: Hands off, I'm done. The artist must simply obey this voice.

The second volume of an epic by the author who, according to the New York Times, invented twenty-first-century fiction.