Van Gogh's Bad Cafe — Frederic Tuten

Vincent van Gogh created his life's work out of a vortex of passion and delirium so intense his paintings seem to burst off the canvas. In Van Gogh's Bad Cafi, Frederic Tuten, the highly acclaimed author of Tintin in the New World, imagines the personification of van Gogh's fervor and madness: Ursula, one of the most beguiling creations in recent literature. A morphine-addicted, 19-year-old photographer, Ursula is van Gogh's lover and tormentor. But she is lost to him, and he to her, when she steps through a crack in the wall of the Bad Cafi and finds herself in a strange world -- modern-day New York. As Ursula seeks to embrace her new environs, van Gogh struggles with his isolation and his demons in 19th-century France. Illustrated with watercolors and drawings by Eric Fischl, this highly original fiction moves nimbly between centuries and perspectives. It delves thoughtfully and imaginatively into the inner life of an artist who has fascinated so many, exploring that complex place where art and life intersect.