Synopsis
'A richly textured, gorgeously written debut that I couldn't put down' - Joanna Quinn, author of The Whalebone Theatre
Venus, Vanishing is the blisteringly passionate and page-turning debut novel from Rebecca Birrell, of desire, art, and the stories lost to the darkness of history – for readers of Sarah Waters, Yael van der Wouden, and Alice Winn.
Berlin, 1928. Hannah is new to the pleasures and freedoms of the city. An artist, a runaway, she is building a new life, loving without boundaries and sketching with a cutting edge.
But the party is ending. Hannah begins a recklessly consuming affair with a powerful man’s wife and it soon threatens to do more than ruin both of their reputations. People are disappearing. The shadows of something unspeakable are growing darker. Her art could be the thing that secures her survival – or will deny her any chance of escape.
'This book offers us a vision of art against evil, of the endurance of love, ambition and vitality amidst the worst of atrocities and betrayal. This is a radiant, bold, exquisite novel — inspiring, moving and ultimately consoling' - Megan Hunter, author of Days of Light
Details
09 July 2026
9781035085804Reviews
'Venus, Vanishing is a gripping, intimate exploration of a young woman artist coming of age in pre-war Berlin. Rebecca Birrell recreates this lost world beautifully, building up its layers as carefully as a painter: its nightclub dancers and nosy landladies, its bold activists and ambitious politicians. Her protagonist Hannah finds in art a space to explore her desires, but in 1930s Germany, that seductive space is becoming increasingly dangerous. Art can both reveal and conceal secrets – and the tangled relationship between artist and muse can have lethal consequences. This is a richly textured, gorgeously written debut that I couldn’t put down'
'It is rare for a novel to hold so much beauty and life alongside such destruction, loss and pain, and even rarer for none of these to diminish the force of the other. This book offers us a vision of art against evil, of the endurance of love, ambition and vitality amidst the worst of atrocities and betrayal. Rebecca Birrell’s writing offers us a world to live in and to hope from, a new counter-narrative of survival and renewal. This is a radiant, bold, exquisite novel — inspiring, moving and ultimately consoling'
