An eccentric, exotic photographer is drawn to a beautiful psychic in a turn-of-the-century novel about love, possession, adventure, and greed.

At the close of the nineteenth century, wheelchair-bound Augustus Auerbach's only interest is his extraordinarily lucrative business: the manufacture and marketing of pornographic photographs. His outlook is forever altered, however, when one of his models pressures him to attend a séance. It is there that Augustus meets the medium Verena Swann, a beautiful widow who gives voice to the long-dead spirit of his mother.

At the time of her first encounter with Augustus, Verena is close to nervous collapse, overwhelmed by the demands of her clients who are half-mad with yearning for their deceased loved ones. Her spiritual powers have begun to fail her, and now, forced to fake her public trances, she wonders if her ability to converse with the spirits was ever more than self-delusion.

Though initially reluctant, Augustus embarks on a series of private sittings with Verena, finding himself increasingly drawn to her as much for personal reasons as for the proof of immortality she offers him. Verena, meanwhile, is torn between three men: Augustus, the millionaire pornographer; Captain Theodore Swann, Verena's adventurer husband, killed on an expedition to the North Pole; and Leopold Swann, Verena's brother-in-law and business partner who has decided that their next and greatest conquest will be Augustus himself.

"Set in late 19th-century New York City, Siegel's second novel (after All the Money in the World) provides a fascinating tour of a pornographer's studio and a reluctant spiritual medium's parlor. Crippled from a childhood illness, the reclusive Augustus Auerbach has built a fortune in the pornography business; largely confined to his opulent mansion and rarely encountering people who are not employees or models, Auerbach is as incurious about others' lives as he is clueless about his own. His controlled existence begins to unravel when one of his models brings him to a sance conducted by the widowed (and crooked) medium, Verena Swann, who apparently connects him with the spirit of his self-absorbed and long-dead mother. As Verena attempts to escape her fraudulent vocation and the manipulative proposals of her business partner and brother-in-law, Leopold, an improbable romance blossoms between her and Auerbach. Siegel lays bare Verena's and Augustus's vulnerabilities as skillfully as they exploit those of others, but the novel's conclusion, which turns on Leopold's implausible machinations, fails to live up to its early promise. Readers willing to forgive the ending will find a richly detailed and seedily seductive narrative." Publishers Weekly (Copyright Reed Business Information, Inc.)

"Siegel is skillful at incorporating into his narrative many fascinating details about photography and spiritualism....This well-crafted novel offers both an unusual plotline and richly atmospheric settings." Booklist

"The story unfolds dramatically as both lovers attempt to reconcile with ghosts from their past, fight those trying to separate them in the present, and, of course, admit their feelings for each other." Library Journal

"All Will Be Revealed will hold you from start to finish — and hold you tightly. It is one of those rare novels that delicately takes you places you never expected to find yourself, one of those rare novels that becomes a movie in your head. The story is alive and breathing in large part because of Robert Anthony Siegel's vigorous and clear prose. Just watch what happens to you as you read it. Afterwards, you'll be spreading the good news." Clyde Edgerton, author of Walking Across Egypt and Raney

A photographer is drawn to a beautiful psychic in a turn-of-the-century novel about love, possession, adventure, and greed.

Robert Anthony Siegel was born in New York City and educated at Harvard, the University of Tokyo, and the Iowa Writers' Workshop. He teaches creative writing at the University of North Carolina in Wilmington, where he lives with his wife, the writer Karen E. Bender, and their two children, Jonah and Maia. He has received fellowships from the Japanese Ministry of Education, the Iowa Writers' Workshop, and the Fine Arts Work Center at Provincetown. All Will Be Revealed is his second novel, following 1997's All the Money in the World.