In these pages, Jonathan Galassi-the longtime publisher of Farrar, Straus and Giroux-gives us an extraordinarily sensitive, satirically sharp novel set in the world of books that he knows so well. At the center is Paul Dukach, editor-in-chief and heir apparent at Purcell & Stern, one of New York’s last great independent publishing houses. But despite all his success, Paul remains obsessed with the writer who got away: the poet Ida Perkins, whose outsize life and work have made her a celebrity-and who is published by Stern’s biggest rival.

When Paul at last meets Ida at her Venetian palazzo, she entrusts him with her greatest secret-one that will change all their lives. Filled with juicy details only a quintessential insider could know, Muse is a salty valentine to the people who write, sell, and, above all, read the books that shape our lives.