If Tarantino and Lynch fans, Lost and Twilight Zone viewers read deeply, then Laird Hunt would be their hero. His writing is full of sincerity, yet stylishly opaque, and his cultural and historical references are both pop and obscure. Like Auster and Lethem before him, Hunt’s reputation has ignited first in Europe and, like the work of Umberto Eco and Arturo Perez-Reverte, this novel is steeped in mystery, art, madness, and allusions to the contemporary consequences of historical decisions. He is a literary genre-bender of the first order and The Exquisite should solidify his reputation both here and abroad. Hunt’s work is already being taught in contemporary fiction classes and this book should find its way onto a number of course adoption lists.