Winter

Though outrageous in plot and writing style, the second Pleasure Quartet novel (after Autumn) has a pronounced erotic effect. Giselle Denoux, a failed ballerina, models for her lover’s private commission of a painting of Joan of Arc’s capture and torture. As the young dancer lives out her private fantasy, she grows closer to the artist, William Trembley, who’s several years her senior, but he ends things when an accident blinds him. Organizers of the Ball, an almost mythical orgy for the senses that occurs periodically around the world, hire her to dance and then manage their private club in New Orleans. Over the years, she choreographs sexual dances, stages elaborate events, and tries to soothe her lustful, mournful yearning for William. In any other hands, the prose depicting Giselle’s longing would be excessively florid or vulgar, but somehow Jackson transforms it into beautiful, arousing writing. Agent: Sarah Such, Sarah Such Literary Agency. (Nov.)