While clearing out his great aunt’s midtown apartment after her death, author David Winner discovered artifacts of her storied existence: notes from opera stars, love letters and artifacts from the Middle East of the 1930’s. His Aunt Dorle had been a co-founder of Angel Records and a prominent figure in the mid-century classical music world. But the more he learned about her world, the more complicated her story became, a twisted puzzle full of fascism and fraud and a record of a young woman grappling with her attraction to lovers with hair-raising political ties. A powerful work of family discovery, rooted in a bygone Midtown Manhattan and involving artists and politicians from around the world.

Master Lovers

A twisted puzzle of love and fascism

“This book is a brilliant concoction, equal to the ingredients that might have been combined in Dorle’s cocktail shaker: fact, fiction, revelation, riddles.  It has a sad ending – though one that is so kind.  The tenderness broke my heart.”

– Ann Beattie

Praise for Enemy Combatant (Outpost 19, 2021): Kirkus (starred review) “a searingly insightful tragicomic adventure that lays bare personal and political fault lines.” Elizabeth McKenzie “Over and over, sentence by sentence, we’re caught off guard, leaving us in state of eerie suspense the whole book through.”

Praise for New York Times-noted Writing the Virus, an anthology of writings (co-edited by Winner) about the early days of the pandemic and the Black Lives Matter movement: Kirkus “vivid testimony to the depth and breadth of suffering during this uniquely stressful time.”

Praise for Kirkus-recommended, Tyler’s Last (Outpost 19, 2015): Ann Beattie “original and fascinating.” Zachary Lazar “a comic and dazzling movie-in-words. Elizabeth Evans “With the magical plot of Tyler’s Last, Winner proves himself a son of Nabokov. An aging, maniacal author’s struggles to finish her final “Tyler” book are divinely echoed and, ultimately, wildly
entwined with the actions of her even madder creation. Just finished this tour de force, and I’m ready to read it again!”

Praise for The Cannibal of Guadalajara, which won the 2009 Gival Press Novel Award and was nominated for the National Book Award: John Casey, “a terrific novel…sharp, sympathetic and painfully funny,” Shirley Hazzard, “a clear bright eye and as fine an ear for what is poignant as for what is absurd. I look for more of his profane comic sense.”  Joy Williams “a devilishly delicious and disorienting novel. Food, sex, ghastly travel experiences, tantrums, Cannibal has it all, along with one of the most peculiar versions of the family triad in literary years.”  The Brooklyn Rail “a powerful tale … a wry criticism of American culture,” Literal Latte a “well-written book full of delightful surprises… that truly rare thing — a comedy with heart.”

 “My Lover’s Moods,” a short film based on a story of Winner’s, played at Cannes in 2007. Other short work has appeared in The Village Voice, Fiction, The Iowa Review, The Millions, The Kenyon Review and (in German) Manuskripte. Full list on under publications.