Portrait of a Shadow

Eighteen-year-old Mae Mansour is the only person who believes that her disappeared older sister Inez is still alive. Seizing the opportunity to escape her overbearing parents, Mae drives from rural Pennsylvania to clean out her sister’s Brooklyn apartment. There, she meets Inez’s charming neighbor Dev, who offers to help Mae investigate Inez’s vanishing. As they scour the apartment for clues, Mae finds a painting—entirely white except for a tantalizing curl of paint peeling from the corner—and a notebook detailing the work’s sordid history. Unwilling to let this lead slip away, Mae and Dev embark on an impromptu road trip to solve the mystery of the painting, during which they become embroiled in a sinister paranormal plot whose origin spans decades. Metoui (A Guide to the Dark) wields frequent flashbacks rendered in sensorial prose to craft a tightly paced thriller that deftly touches on issues of forced cultural assimilation and parental pressure. Though the ending may leave readers with more questions than answers, Metoui delivers a tale of love, obsession, and betrayal that’s a wild ride from start to finish. Mae’s parents are from Tunisia; Dev is of Indian descent. Ages 14–up. Agent: Jennifer March Soloway, Andrea Brown Literary. (July)