In 'Anima Rising,' Gustav Klimt encounters a young woman under strange circumstances

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Books, Arts

4.2 • 672 Ratings

🗓️ 29 May 2025

⏱️ 8 minutes

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Summary

In 1911 Vienna, a man on his way home spots the figure of a woman at the edge of the river. She is still, beautiful and nude, framed by tendrils of yellow hair. The man is Austrian painter Gustav Klimt. So instead of calling for help, the artist takes out his sketchbook. In his new historical novel Anima Rising, Christopher Moore uses this strange encounter as the jumping off point for his story, which goes on to involve characters like Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung. In today's episode, Moore joins NPR's Scott Simon for a conversation about the mystery at the center of the story and the real-life Klimt's relationship to women.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey, it's Empire's Book of the Day. I'm Andrew Limbaong. Today's book, Anima Rising by
0:07.0	Christopher Moore, is a historical fiction novel based on Gustav Klimt. Now, I'll be honest,
0:12.6	before listening to today's interview, I've never heard of Gustav Klimt. He was apparently
0:18.0	a famous Austrian painter. He has this piece called The Kiss, which is probably his most recognizable work.
0:24.4	But the beauty of historical fiction is that when it's done right, you don't really need to know who Gustav Klimt was ahead of time.
0:32.4	As Moore tells NPR Scott Simon, the history is just a shape, something to hang a story on.
0:37.9	And in this book, he definitely hangs quite the story.
0:40.8	That's ahead.
0:42.9	A man walks home one night after an evening of debauchery in 1911, Vienna looks down from the
0:48.5	Rossauer Bridge and spies the figure of a woman against the concrete stairs at the water's edge.
0:55.7	She is nude.
0:56.9	She is still.
0:58.7	She is also beautiful.
1:01.0	Framed by tendrils of yellow hair.
1:04.1	Maybe it would be more conscientious to call police or a doctor.
1:08.1	But the man who was found, the woman as Gustav Klimt,
1:10.8	the most acclaimed
1:11.9	painter in Vienna. And on Christopher Moore's new novel, Animal Rising, the artist, just takes out
1:19.1	his sketchbook. Christopher Moore, the best selling novelist, joins us now. Thanks so much for being
1:25.1	with us. Thanks for having me. He does do a little bit more than that
1:29.6	eventually, but why is his first reaction to sketcher? Well, because she resembles so many of the
1:36.0	paintings that he's done of women sort of floating ethereally in a dream very often. And it's so
	...

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