“Art bleeds into life in Larissa Pham’s exhilarating, exquisite book, full of an eerie intelligence and startling compassion. . . . A pitch-perfect novel.”—Ayşegül Savaş, author of The Anthropologists
“Prose with a clarity and edge like glass, with a crispness that gives the atmosphere of a thriller . . . Discipline braids life, art, and the fictions we tell ourselves.”—Marlowe Granados, author of Happy Hour
“Discipline wrecked me in the best way. To say that it is a brilliant excavation—of artistic production, of how to craft a meaningful life as an artist and a person, of radical generosity—is an understatement.”—Elaine Hsieh Chou, author of Disorientation
“With prose that is both lush and precise, Discipline reads like a taut thriller even though it is really an elegant exploration of creativity and commitment to one’s craft, and how when we don’t value our craft almost anything can rob us of it. . . . An admirable debut.”—Roxane Gay, author of Bad Feminist
“A delicate, wry, taut, suspenseful reading experience, Discipline captivated me from beginning to end. Pham is an original, real talent.”—Jami Attenberg, author of All This Could Be Yours
“Intensely smart, evocative, and gorgeously written . . . Not only is Discipline a gripping and suspenseful revenge story, it’s also a novel of ideas. It asks the hardest questions about art and death and the responsibilities we all have to one another. Pham is a great writer.”—Stuart Nadler, author of Rooms for Vanishing
“A nerve-tingling feat exploring how a person and an artist are made . . . The narrator’s exquisite voice balances an impeccable control over deep tumults of feeling. I couldn’t look away from her self-imposed odyssey and the reverberating consequences awaiting her at her ultimate destination. I’m in awe of Pham’s talent, sensibility, and intellect.”—Alyssa Songsiridej, author of Little Rabbit
“Pham . . . turns to fiction with the dazzling story of an art critic who publishes a novel about the former professor who rejected her after their affair. . . . It’s a page-turner, but the main event is Christine’s meditations on art, ambition, and the relationship between art and life. . . . This is electrifying.”—Publishers Weekly, starred review
“Pham draws on her experiences as a visual artist and the critical acumen that shaped her bravura first book, Pop Song (2021), a memoir-in-essays. Pham gives her conflicted, lonely, acutely observant and analytical protagonist the same sort of exquisite sensitivity. . . . Questions the practice and meaning of art, the solace of writing, and the dangerously porous border between life and fiction . . . Discipline, a brilliant, entrancing, and provocative mirror-within-mirrors tale of art, story, and power, is all that and more.”—Booklist, starred review
“[An] astute debut novel . . . beautiful and evocative . . . The novel simmers with tension and tenderness as Christine ponders the past and comes to terms with the present. Pham’s lithe prose is especially on display in her musings about love, intimacy, power, art, writing, survival, and agency. A quietly elegant debut from a writer with great promise.”—Kirkus Reviews
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