David Adams Cleveland

David Adams Cleveland is a novelist and art historian. His latest novel, Gods of Deception, was described by the WSJ's Walter Russell Mead as "an accomplished and compelling novel of enormous ambition . . . the author is a major American novelist whose ear for language, eye for both artistic and natural detail, cultural scholarship, understanding of human character, and feel for American social reality, makes him a national treasure. Gods of Deception was a 2022 Indies Book of the Year finalist for historical fiction. His third novel, Time's Betrayal, (Booklist stared review) was awarded Best Historical Novel of 2017 by Reading the Past. Pulitzer prize-winning author Robert Olen Butler called Time's Betrayal, "a vast, rich, endlessly absorbing novel engaging with the great and enduring theme of literary art, the quest for identity." Bruce Olds, two-time Pulitzer nominated author, described Time's Betrayal as a "monumental work . . . in a league of its own and class by itself . . . a large-hearted American epic that deserves the widest possible, most discriminating of readerships." His second novel, Love's Attraction, was praised by Booklist as a family saga moving between Concord and Venice—a twisty, atmospheric tale, leisurely told, about love and creativity, grief and pain, family and identity. Fictionalcities.uk included Love's Attraction on its list of top novels for 2013. His first novel, With a Gemlike Flame, drew wide praise for its evocation of Venice and the hunt for a lost masterpiece by Raphael. His most recent art history book, A History of American Tonalism, won the Silver Medal in Art History in the Book of the Year Awards, 2010; and Outstanding Academic Title 2011 from the American Library Association; and with the 3rd edition from Abbeville Press has gone on to be one of the best-selling books in American art history—now the standard reference in its field. David was a regular reviewer for Artnews, and has written for The Magazine Antiques, the American Art Review, and Dance Magazine. For almost a decade, he was the Arts Editor at Voice of America. He and his wife split their time between the Catskills and Siesta Key.