What You Make of Me

A Novel

De: Sophie Madeline Dess

Narrado por: Candace Fitzgerald

“What You Make of Me unfolds at an engaging pace, with energetic twists and wonderfully perverse characters.”—BOMB

“Ms. Dess shrewdly explores the intersections between intimacy and possession.”—The Wall Street Journal

“It’s a tour de force.”—Publishers Weekly (starred review)

In this mesmerizing debut from a bright new talent, two enigmatic and unforgettable siblings confront what–and who–they’re willing to sacrifice for their art

“Sophie Madeline Dess has conjured one of the most unique and heartbreaking family narratives in recent memory, and with her rendering of the dynamic between Ava and Demetri, she’s given us a sibling duo for the ages.”—Sam Lipsyte, New York Times bestselling author of The Ask and No One Left to Come Looking for You

On the eve of her first solo show, Ava is feeling defiant. The art gallery acolytes have insisted on writing “explanations” of her paintings for an accompanying catalog, but what do they know of her work? What do they know of her brother, Demetri, whose face echoes across every canvas?

After all, Ava and Demetri have only ever had each other. Abandoned first by their mother, who drowned in the Long Island Sound, and then again by their father, who couldn’t see beyond his grief, each sibling has always been the other’s most ardent supporter: Demetri encouraged Ava’s raw talent as a painter, while Ava pushed Demetri to pursue filmmaking. But as they make their way in New York, the codependency that once sustained them soon threatens to be their undoing. Betrayals mount, fueled by Ava’s reckless acts and her disdain for Demetri’s last-ditch efforts to make something of consequence, but what ultimately and irreversibly tips the scales won’t be found on canvas or film. Because now, at thirty-one, Demetri is dying.

As Ava reckons with the meaning of her portraits, what soon emerges from her intimate, offhanded, and mischievous meditations is a stunning and unsettling confession of secrets, epiphanies, rivalry, and infidelity. Vaulting between childhood and the days leading up to Demetri’s death, here is a searing portrait of two remarkable siblings reckoning with the limits of loyalty. Heralding the arrival of an impressive new talent, What You Make of Me lays bare the thin line between success and sacrifice.

©2025 Sophie Madeline Dess (P)2025 Penguin Audio

Reseñas de la Crítica

“There is no club more exclusive than that of brilliant, close-knit siblings, and Ms. Dess’s challenge is to ensure that readers aren’t also excluded from her characters’ particular mind meld. She does this by focusing on the ruptures that drive them apart, partly in the person of a chic gallery owner who becomes a love interest to both . . . In the juxtaposition of Ava’s paintings with her memories, Ms. Dess shrewdly explores the intersections between intimacy and possession.”—The Wall Street Journal

“In What You Make of Me, [Dess] has written not only a very good novel about painting but also a believable painter’s novel . . . What You Make of Me is a dialectical novel, the story of an artist working through a creative divergence to move herself forward. Demetri represents Dess’s worst fears about being a critic, Ava her worst fears about what it might mean to be an artist, and their synthesis is the exciting young author who wrote this novel.”—Los Angeles Review of Books

“My first impression of What You Make of Me was that [Dess] has an eye for the visual. I shouldn’t have been surprised, of course . . . Dess’s critical voice combines meticulous art history knowledge with singular insights. In her fiction, this visual acuity transforms, becoming daring, luscious, and occasionally sacrilegious . . . She possesses the rare talent to shift between styles and voices, challenging readers intellectually while sometimes making them blush—often accomplishing both at once . . . What You Make of Me unfolds at an engaging pace, with energetic twists and wonderfully perverse characters . . . Dess masterfully depicts crowded rooms with their inevitable politics of artistic gatherings (woe betide us), the unsettling experiences of desire, and the destabilizing yet consuming nature of creation itself.”—BOMB