The Seductive Lady Vanessa of Manhattanshire by Kaufman, Seth

A hilarious, multi-layered, modern mashup of Don Quixote, Cold Comfort Farm, and The Thirteenth Tale, The Seductive Lady Vanessa of Manhattanshire is an ingenious must-read for fans of romantic fiction, literary satire, and books about books.

Famous Arabic translator Oona Noor receives a mysterious manuscript from Cairo entitled The Seductive Lady Vanessa of Manhattanshire and realizes she has discovered a masterpiece. The book, written by an unknown author named Aisha Benengeli, spins the tale of Maxine More, a divorced, romance novel-obsessed New Yorker who envisions herself as a Georgian Lady and sees the world entirely through the prism of her beloved books. Designating her cleaning lady Magdalena Cruz as her lady-in-waiting, Lady Vee embarks on a series of misadventures. She mistakes a plumber for a famous alpha male; pursues her poodle-owning crush, Nelson Dodge; dispenses misguided advice to the lovelorn and goes man-hunting on New York's Upper East Side. Heartbroken when the manuscript ends abruptly, translator Noor journeys to Cairo, hunts for the concluding pages, and uncovers a stunning confession from Lady Vee's creator Benengeli about her own romantic troubles. As the author struggles to find happiness for her crazed character and herself, the translator desperately searches for the elusive writer. In the end, this delightfully inventive novel unspools three tales about three very different women, each on a quest for a perfect love story.

Author: Seth Kaufman
Publisher: Post Hill Press
Published: 06/07/2022
Pages: 240
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.55lbs
Size: 8.10h x 5.50w x 0.70d
ISBN: 9781637583623

Review Citation(s):
Publishers Weekly 06/06/2022

About the Author
Seth Kaufman is a Brooklyn-based novelist and journalist. He has ghostwritten several nonfiction national bestsellers and is the co-author of the acclaimed exposé Stealth War. The New York Times called his book The King of Pain "one of 2012's most entertaining novels." His work has appeared in many national publications.