The Cloud of Knowing

Francie Bogenschine is an independent, willful ninety-year-old Greenwich Village widow who embodies the great artistic heart of downtown New York. Her husband, the impassioned composer and eccentric Rafael Bogenschine, leapt to his death in 1967 at the height of his fame. Francie has fended off would-be biographers for decades. She finally decides to cooperate with one, a leading music historian named Daniel Sidorsky. Daily, Sidorsky climbs the stairs of Francie’s house in Patchin Place to sift through the archives, then consults with Francie about his findings. Francie faithfully records the goings-on in her notebook. Will the biographer’s probe uncover the mysteries surrounding Bogenschine’s work, his womanizing, and his desire to leave this earthly plane?

Praise & Reviews

“A tour de force of voice. Through Francie, everyone else springs to life—especially the dead, like her husband, and his teacher/admirer/would-be lover, Amos. It’s a generous book about love . . . and finally, a story of redemptive acceptance. It’s a spree, a moving adventure, a spirited New York Art Story . . . a beautiful invention.”
—ROSANNA WARREN, author of Max Jacob: A Life in Art and Letters

“The Cloud of Knowing is a dazzling novel that contains multitudes. . . . I gasped when I got to the end and started reading all over again for the sheer pleasure of it.”
—WILL SCHWALBE, author of We Should Not Be Friends

“A deep, wise, funny and moving novel about old age, memory, biography, and our relationship with the dead, which, within its witty and stylish story, expresses a profound belief in the transcendental value of the here and now, the life we have.”
—DAME HERMIONE LEE, author of Virginia Woolf