The 'Nature of Evil' Is Explored Through the Wealthy Confines of the Art World in "The Spectacle" — See the Cover! (Exclusive)
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03/28/2025 01:03 PM
Debut author Anna Barrington draws from her own experiences of working in the art world for the taut thriller from Union Square coming this summer
Union Square; Sebastian Duran de la Huerta
The Spectacle cover (left); Anna BarringtonThe status-obsessed, money-fueled New York art scene provides the backdrop for a page-turning new social thriller coming to bookstores this summer.
The Spectacle by debut author Anna Barrington comes from Union Square and will hit shelves on July 8. PEOPLE can exclusively reveal the cover for the novel, which is set on the eve of the 2016 presidential election.
Barrington tells PEOPLE the story follows a "powerful gallerist" named Randolph, who is determined to "ascend the ranks of the elite contemporary art world," no matter the cost. "The story opens on a dark and rainy night in November 2016, when the New York art world is still stunned by the presidential election," Barrington, 29, says. "Into this space steps Ingrid, a failed artist, who is drawn into Rudolph's manipulations."
Union Square
'The Spectacle' by Anna BarringtonShe adds that The Spectacle is "a study of disintegration: a love story, a business, eventually even a personality in collapse. But it's also the story of what is left when it's all over."
The author, who draws from her own experiences of working in New York's art scene throughout her early 20s, was also inspired by a number of cultural touchstones while writing her first book, including the works of Bret Easton Ellis, F. Scott Fitzgerald's Tender Is the Night and 90s noir movies, like those directed by Paul Verhoeven.
However, Barrington shares that it was the artists she encountered during her time working in New York's galleries that inspired her to write The Spectacle.
"The artists were the ones who really inspired me to write this novel," she explains. "They painted and made things, relying on their learning, memories and spirit alone. I realized you could bet on yourself ... So for a few years I went to parties and scribbled things down, wondering how I could transform certain dramas in the lives of friends or acquaintances into art."
Sebastian Duran de la Huerta
Anna BarringtonThe PEOPLE Puzzler crossword is here! How quickly can you solve it? Play now!
The Spectacle may be even more relevant now than it was when she was writing it. Barrington says her novel "describes a society that was in flux when I wrote it but has now become solid."
"Scammers rise to the top, secretive tech lords control large swathes of the press and every cultural action denotes a violent reaction," she says. "People talk openly about money in this book: as pathology, an abstraction, but also in how it fuels or destroys people's waking lives."
Barrington adds, "The nature of evil is also a constant source of curiosity. When a person like Rudolph appears, it doesn't happen in a vacuum. There's a weakness, a hunger, a flaw in the system."
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The Spectacle is available for preorder now, wherever books are sold.
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