Infinite Gradation

Infinite Gradation is an astonishing meditation on the mystery at the heart of our mortality.

In lines as precise and profound as any Michaels has written, Infinite Gradation movingly explores the nature of responsibility in extremis and the forms it takes—it is about hope in art, what art makes of death, and bears witness to the love and lives of visual artists and writers who have made work at the limits of experience.

Infinite Gradation finds its way to a most powerful solace.

(Michaels embraces mortality through three great artists, recently dead, who were her confidants: the sculptor Eva Hesse, the painter Jack Chambers, and Claire Wilks, print maker and sculptor.)

Anne Michaels of Toronto has published books in over forty-five countries, and has won dozens of international awards, including the Orange Prize, the Guardian Fiction Prize, and the Lannan Award for Fiction. She has been shortlisted for the Giller Prize (twice), the Governor-General’s Award, and longlisted for the IMPAC Award (twice). Her novel, Fugitive Pieces, was adapted as a feature film. Her latest book of poetry, Correspondences, was shortlisted for the Griffin Poetry Prize in 2014. She is Toronto’s Poet Laureate 2016-2018.