Medium Rare

PRAISE FOR The Portrait of a Mirror
“A richly-layered portrait of two couples caught a crossroads....Joukovsky’s prose, like the best parts of Jonathan Franzen’s Freedom or Donna Tartt’s The Secret History, demands the reader’s fullest attention. Clever and witty and intricate, Joukovsky’s voice emphasizes her characters’ best features, like candlelight in a luxurious hotel bar.” ―Booklist *STARRED* Review

"Gossip Girl meets The Secret History...Joukovsky’s ability to both skewer and sympathize with her characters would impress Edith Wharton herself." ―Vulture

"This delightful, perfectly rendered novel is filled with gossip and charged exchanges, bad decisions made by rich people, but also some pretty interesting questions about art and value, all of it filtered through the legend of Narcissus...I was beyond charmed." ―Lit Hub

“This contemporary novel of manners is so sly and sharp and well-observed, so densely witty and full of piercing offhand observation: there’s a world of pleasure in the intellectual force and formidable voice of A. Natasha Joukovsky’s debut. As a not-quite-love story about deceptive infatuation, The Portrait of a Mirror is both rich with indulgence and caustic with spiraling self-knowledge; it’s a macaron that might be hiding a razor blade, ready to be devoured nonetheless.” ―Jia Tolentino, New York Times bestselling author of Trick Mirror

“Joukovsky’s haunting prose pairs beautifully with her sharp and witty dialogue. Her well-crafted characters occupy richly curated lives and personal histories that weave together in fascinating ways. The Portrait of a Mirror stays with you long after you’ve read it and it’s the kind of book you pass along when you’re finished so you can keep talking about it over and over again.”―FanSided

“I can’t stop thinking about A. Natasha Joukovsky’s characters. I want to be friends with them, and drink too many Bloody Marys with them; I’m also terrified of what they’d say about me behind my back. The Portrait of a Mirror is a wickedly fun debut—a novel that floats seamlessly between Ovid and dive bars, and that shows us the perils of getting exactly what we want.”―Grant Ginder, author of The People We Hate at the Wedding

“In a wickedly fun debut you won't be able to put down, Joukovsky reinvents the myth of Narcissus for modern times.”―Veranda Magazine

“The Portrait of a Mirror is an absolute delight: an intellectually dazzling, deliciously wicked novel about love, art, illusion, and modernity—not to mention a pitch-perfect satire of New York’s beautiful people. I devoured it in a state of ecstatic thrall, feeling quite as hypnotized and insatiable as Narcissus himself, and not the least bit sorry about it.”―Emily Temple, author of The Lightness

“readers will enjoy the view of an insular, rarified world...”
―Publishers Weekly