Barbara’s Pick
August 2023
The Cloisters
Katy Hays
Atria Books, November 1, 2022
I saw this title mentioned in the New York Times Book Review; when I saw it in the Lucky Day section of our library it practically jumped into my hands. The plot starts with Ann, a recent college graduate majoring in early Renaissance texts, moving across the country to work as a summer intern at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. A snafu in the interns’ office leaves Ann without her slot–but then she is picked up by Patrick, the curator at the Cloisters. Her beautiful, wealthy coworker, Rachel, becomes an unlikely friend, as does the gardener, Leo.
Patrick acquires a set of Renaissance tarot cards and becomes obsessed with reading them and discovering their origin. A tragic accident starts the summer’s spiral that twists until the very end. Seriously.
I’d been to the Cloisters many years ago and wondered how it would feature in a novel. What a remarkable experience it was!