A GLOBE AND MAIL BEST BOOK OF 2022
A CBC BEST CANADIAN FICTION BOOK OF THE YEAR
"These brilliant and bold artists explode off the page as they try to transcend the boundaries of the material world in their work....[Sopinka] captures the volatility and power of female friendships, and the uncharted maps of women's untameable artistic drives." —Heather O'Neill, author of When We Lost Our Heads
Out of the explosive 1970s L.A. art scene comes a riveting novel about creativity, death, and reinvention that follows two artists—one dies mysteriously, and the other takes her place
It’s okay for men to make bad art. There’s no price on their head for doing it… Nothing for men is pre-determined, except their chance at great success.
When Romy, a gifted young artist in the male-dominated art scene of 1970s California, dies in suspicious circumstances, it is not long before her art star husband Billy finds a replacement.
Paz, fresh out of art school in New York, returns to California to take her place. But she is haunted by Romy, who is everywhere: in the photos and notebooks and art strewn around the house, and in the eyes of the baby she left behind, the baby Paz is now mother to.
Strange things begin to happen. Photographs move, noises reverberate through the house, people start to question what really happened the night Romy died, and then a postcard in her handwriting arrives.
At once an exquisite exploration of creativity and an atmospheric pageturner, Utopia is a novel that takes hold of you and will leave you altered.