the untold story of a pop messiah
NOVEMBER 17, 2026 // SIMON & SCHUSTER
From Josephine Riesman, the author of the New York Times bestseller Ringmaster and the Hugo finalist True Believer, comes a propulsive and stylish account of the musician Beck, who was received as a pop messiah in the 1990s, but whose closest friends and most devoted fans never knew his buried secrets.
"Josephine Riesman's captivating profile of the Gen X pop sensation boldly parses the influence of Scientology on his life and career... But The Last Temptation of Beck is no hit piece. Riesman brings a great deal of empathy to her subject as a longtime fan. Hers is a portrait of a man in conflict... It's this measured yet personal approach that makes Riesman's investigation every bit as complex and intriguing as the pop star himself."
-Shelf Awareness (starred review)
ADVANCE PRAISE FOR “THE LAST TEMPTATION OF BECK”
“This is alt-rock biography as compulsively readable literary thriller … It becomes a Faustian existential battle for the soul of a man, and ultimately, a nation always at war with our better angels. In this riveting salvo in her American Myth series, Riesman has captured the dream of the ’90s, but also the nightmare we are yet to wake up from.”
— Aidan Levy, author of Dirty Blvd.: The Life and Music of Lou Reed and Saxophone Colossus: The Life and Music of Sonny Rollins
“Josephine Riesman's book is as uncategorizable as Beck's music. It's the story of a Gen X savant from a very unusual family but it's also an investigation into friendship, fandom, Scientology, secrets, and the difference between authenticity and truth. Beck has tried to remain an enigma. Riesman explains why. I found it fascinating. Not what I expected at all. I can't think of another music book like it."
— Dorian Lynskey, author of 33 Revolutions Per Minute and The Ministry of Truth
“This is a masterpiece … It reminded me of nothing more than, of all people, Stephen King, both in the easy, novelistic, conversational narrative flow and the unremitting horror of the actual story being told.”
— Andrew Hickey, host of A History of Rock Music in 500 Songs
“One of the best books I’ve ever read about the forging of an artistic persona—a love story, a ghost story, a family story spanning three generations of bohemia, and a portrait of the artist wrestling the forces of evil in a bozo nightmare.”
“A gripping thrill for longtime fans as well as readers who have never followed the trippy, lo-fi output of the Gen X icon. That’s because The Last Temptation of Beck is really an incantation on fame, late-20th century L.A., dot-matrix printers and cassette tapes, Prodigy chat rooms and the changing spread of rumor, truth and lies in American society … It lands as a reckoning.”
— Alex Pappademas, Senior Culture Editor of GQ and co-author of Quantum Criminals: Ramblers, Wild Gamblers, and Other Sole Survivors from the Songs of Steely Dan
— Charlie Wells, author of What Happened to Millennials
“This biography has everything: sex, secret societies, fashion, betrayal, Hollywood, rock 'n' roll—it's like Pop-Up Video with way more scandal."
— Colette Shade, author of Y2K: How the 2000s Became Everything
“An amazing read, both for longtime obsessive fans and wild-eyed newcomers… The beauty of Beck is how he defies the trappings of genre and style, just as readily showing you his scars as he does all his favorite tricks. How lucky for us then that Josephine Riesman’s book manages to reveal all his carefully hidden truths, while never fully ruining what pleasure comes of bearing witness to Beck’s legendary oeuvre.”
— Niko Stratis, author The Dad Rock That Made Me a Woman