In this seductive and shattering novel, Alison and Veronica meet amid the nocturnal glamour of 1980s New York: one is a former modeling sensation, stumbling away from the wreck of her career, the other an eccentric middle-aged proofreader with a meticulous eye. Over the next twenty years their friendship will encompass narcissism and tenderness, exploitation and self-sacrifice, love and mortality. Moving seamlessly between the glamorous and gritty '80s, when beauty and style gave licence to excess and the broken world of the decade's survivors twenty years after, Gaitskill casts a fierce yet compassionate eye on the two eras and their fixations. ''Veronica'' masterfully evokes the fragility and mystery of human relationships in a world where love is rife with contradictions. Evocative, raw, and entirely unique, ''Veronica'' was shortlisted for the prestigious 2005 National Book Award in the USA.