Debut Novel 'Vladimir' by Julia May Jonas '12 Out This Week

Simon & Schuster recently published a debut novel, Vladimir, by Playwriting alumna Julia May Jonas '12. Vladimir is now available for purchase.

Jonas's novel follows a beloved English professor whose charismatic husband at the same liberal arts college comes under fire for his inappropriate relationships with former students. Their marriage only grows more complicated when Vladimir—a celebrated, married, young novelist arrives on campus—and the narrator develops an obsession of her own.

Vladimir was highly anticipated and received a starred review from Kirkus Reviews.

According to Publishers Weekly, the novel is "mordantly funny…[Jonas] generously studs the narrative with clever literary allusions… and surprisingly upends assumptions about gender, power, and shame."

Writer Lily King also praised the novel, saying, “Vladimir is a thrilling debut—smart, sharp, and über provocative. I devoured it with fascination and awe."

Writer Joanna Rakoff stated, "Vladimir is among the best novels of the past two decades. Astonishing, magnificent, dazzling, deeply moving—and also deeply funny…It is the rare novel that I hoped would never, ever end."

Jonas is a multidisciplinary artist and writer. She is the author of the play-cycle All Long True American Stories, five new works inspired by five canonical male-experience plays. Her work has been presented/developed with The Bushwick Starr, New Georges, Ars Nova, Target Margin, PRELUDE, Playwrights Horizons,Theater School, Incubator Arts Center, BRIC, HERE Arts Center, The Great Plains Theatre Conference, Montclair State New Works Initiative, North American Culture Laboratory, JKB Theater at Skidmore College, The Brick Theater, Dixon Place, TerraNova, and others. She teaches theater at Skidmore College and lives in Brooklyn with her family.