Sweet Caress ~ Paperback ~ William Boyd

When Amory Clay was born, in the decade before the Great War, her disappointed father gave her an androgynous name and announced the birth of a son. But this daughter was not one to let others define her; Amory became a woman who accepted no limits to what that could mean, and from the time she picked up her first camera, one who would record her own version of events.Moving freely between London and New York, between photojournalism and fashion photography, and between the men who love her on complicated terms, Amory establishes her reputation as a risk taker and a passionate life traveler. Her hunger for experience draws her to the decadence of Weimar-era Berlin and the violence of London's Blackshirt riots, to the Rhineland with Allied troops and into the political tangle of war-torn Vietnam. During her ambitious career, the seminal moments of the twentieth century will become the unforgettable moments of her own biography as well.In "Sweet Caress," Amory Clay comes wondrously to life, her vibrant personality enveloping the reader from the start. And, running through the novel, her photographs over the decades allow us to experience this vast story not only with Amory's voice but with her vision. William Boyd's "Sweet Caress" captures an entire lifetime unforgettably within its pages. It captivates.Author BiographyWilliam Boyd is the author of thirteen previous novels, including "A Good Man in Africa," winner of the Whitbread Book Award and the Somerset Maugham Award"; An Ice-Cream War," winner of the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize and shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize; "Any Human Heart," winner of the Prix Jean Monnet; "Restless," winner of the Costa Book of the Year; "Ordinary Thunderstorms"; "Waiting for Sunrise"; and most recently, "Solo: A James Bond Novel." Boyd lives in London and France. williamboyd.co.uk