THE ARTIST WHO NEVER WAS by Jarek Tomszak
Genre: Thriller; Literary Thriller; Crime / Forgery Fiction; Science Fiction (AI / Techno-thriller); Psychological Drama; Contemporary Fiction; Mystery
A sleek, unsettling thriller that fuses art-world intrigue with the moral ambiguity of artificial intelligence, The Artist Who Never Was explores the high cost of ambition in an era where authenticity itself is up for negotiation. Set during the isolating early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, the novel follows Mike Everhart, a struggling writer scraping by as a custodial worker in a hollowed-out New York. From its opening pages, Tomszak establishes a stark atmosphere of emptiness and quiet desperation: “the city’s sound muted by cold and vacancy… as if the block had been shrink-wrapped for months and forgotten”. This sense of suspended reality mirrors Mike’s own stalled life. The discovery of a mysterious catalog and a forgotten artwork sets the plot into motion, gradually pulling Mike into a world where value and truth are manipulable constructs. As he becomes entangled in the creation of a fabricated artistic identity, the novel sharpens into a meditation on deception—not just of others, but of the self. Tomszak skillfully frames art as both aspiration and commodity, with Mike reflecting that “it’s mostly just moving things from one room to another… something for a minute, and then it’s gone”. What distinguishes Tomszak’s work is its layered engagement with authenticity in the age of AI. The fabricated artist and the hidden archive of “impossible acquisitions” suggest a shadow economy of culture. The haunting symbol tied to the enigmatic Jan Haggenbunk becomes a recurring motif. Emotional beats, particularly those surrounding Mike’s relationship with his aunt Mira, lend the story weight. Her guiding philosophy—“Understanding beauty is the first step to creating it,” echoes throughout the novel, complicating the ethical stakes of what Mike ultimately chooses to create. While the novel leans into familiar thriller conventions—hidden files, shadowy institutions, and escalating danger—it elevates them through its thematic ambition. The question is not simply whether the deception will succeed, but what it means to succeed in a world where truth can be engineered.
A timely, thought-provoking thriller that interrogates the nature of creativity, ownership, and ambition in the digital age—The Artist Who Never Was is as intellectually engaging as it is narratively compelling.
