The Floating World

A cautionary tale of a young, newly widowed art critic who goes to work for a mysterious billionaire determined to build a geodesic-domed paradise to shelter the rich.

For fans of novels of Vincenzo Latronico’s Perfection and Blake Butler’s Molly

On a remote island in the Aegean, Morel, a billionaire, is constructing a utopian community beneath a giant geodesic dome. The “Floating World” is advertised as a refuge for only the wealthiest people from the crises engulfing the planet.

Our protagonist is offered a job working on the spectacular art exhibition that will inaugurate this closed society. Recognizing that this is a branding exercise for ethically dubious property development, he is nonetheless attracted by the opportunity to work with an artist he once hero-worshipped—the reclusive, semi-retired Finn Reith—and to restart a life that stopped with the loss of his wife.

At first glance, the Floating World seems like a paradise, but it soon becomes clear that all is not well beneath the shimmering dome. Why is the billionaire head of the corporation ensconced in his own residence on the far side of the island, surrounded by bodyguards? Why are the workers so reluctant to speak of their experiences? Our protagonist’s gaze is distracted from these indicators of some deeper disturbance by Selima, the uncannily familiar technical director of the exhibition.

The Floating World is a dystopia and Bildungsroman, steeped in atmosphere and sparkling with intelligence, and signals the arrival of a major new talent on the fiction scene.Ben Eastham is an art critic and editor based in London. He is editor-in-chief of art-agenda and founding editor of The White Review. His writing has been published in ArtReview, frieze, e-flux, the London Review of Books, and the New York Times, among other publications. His book, The Imaginary Museum, was published by TLS Books in August 2020 and a book on contemporary art called The Shape of Things to Come is forthcoming from Fitzcarraldo Editions. The Floating World is his first novel.