The Last Painting of Sara de Vos: A Novel
Sara de Vos, as a woman painter in the 1600s, was ahead of her time. The first female painter appointed to the Guild of St. Luke, Sara pushes the envelope by painting landscapes. Thought to be weaker, women were mostly encouraged to paint indoors as exposure to the elements would surely be fateful. Once married and a mother, debt and the plague take both away from Sara.
Sara's only lasting painting echoes her defiance to the society at the time--"At the Edge of the Wood" featuring a young girl on a hill viewing a village. This painting hangs over the head of the bed of Marty DeGroot on his wife. Marty is a wealthy Manhattan lawyer in the 1950s, both powerful and intelligent. After a dinner party, he becomes aware that "At the Edge of the Wood" has been replaced with an almost identical forgery. He sets out to find out who deceived him, eventually crossing paths with Ellie who was behind the forgery.
The story twists between Sara, Marty, and Ellie, eventually interweaving their lives in ways that go beyond the portrait. I absolutely loved this book. Although the plot was complex and it was something I read slowly, the author told a beautiful story.
What are you reading?
2 comments:
I finished The Last Bus to Wisdom. Sorry Barb, I didn't LOVE it. It was long and I didn't have enough opportunities to sit and read it in big chunks. So for me it kind of dragged and I just wanted it to be over because I had a stack of other books beside my bed that I was excited about.
Then I read Rain Reign on one rainy Sunday afternoon and LOVED IT SO MUCH. So Barb hit it out of the park with that recommendation.
I've just started The Passenger by Lisa Lutz and I think it's going to be a great page-turner.
Lyndsay - I truly believe that some books are better simply because of what else is going in on my life when I read them. I will not hold it against you that you didn't enjoy the random bus travels of Donal & Herman :) [especially since you also loved Rain Reign which I hold dear to my heart]
This week I read a book that I never would have picked up on my own. My brother gave it to me at Thanksgiving and it took me this long to give it a shot. And then I LOVED IT! So exciting and fun and I loved all the 80s references. Seriously, I think this book will be on my top ten books of the year: Ready Player One. SO FUN.
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