|
|
Sarah Broadhurst's view...
Coming straight into paperback only, a beautifully produced book with flaps and coloured pictures of some of the paintings brushed over in this extraordinary monologue. Powerful, erudite, menacing, dark, disturbing and strangely gripping, this is a short (224 pages), atmospheric, psychological mystery. Set in the early 20th century, a once feted artist, self-exiled, paints the portrait of his old mentor, a renowned critic and so their lives unfold with startling revelations. I was totally enthralled throughout. It is extraordinarily good.
Comparison: Sarah Waters, Ian McEwan, A S Byatt.
Similar this month: None, but try Gerard Woodward or Tash Aw.
Who is Sarah Broadhurst ? |
Synopsis
Portrait by Iain Pears
The windswept isle of Houat, off the coast of Brittany, is no picturesque artists' colony. At the turn of the twentieth century, life is harsh and rustic. So why did Henry MacAlpine forsake London – where he had been fêted by critics and gallery owners, his works exhibited alongside the likes of Cezanne and Van Gogh – to make his home in this remote outpost?
The truth begins to emerge when, four years into his exile, MacAlpine receives his first visitor. Influential art critic William Nasmyth has come to the island to sit for a portrait. Over the course of the sitting, the power balance between the two men shifts dramatically as the critic whose pen could anoint or destroy careers becomes a passive subject. And as the painter struggles to capture Nasmyth's true character on canvas, a story unfolds – one of betrayal, hypocrisy, forbidden love, suicide and ultimately murder.
The Portrait is a darkly atmospheric, psychologically complex, macabre and chilling novel from a master storyteller.
Reviews
'A wonderful, grimly entertaining novel.'
Sunday Telegraph
'A revenge fantasy to relish.'
Independent on Sunday
'Genuinely creepy.'
The Times
'A tense tale of revenge, where the creative bites the critical back.'
Observer
'An exquisite miniature that explores the roles of artist and critic with wit and gore.'
Evening Standard
'This is an atmospheric tour de force of historical writing, as it is of narrative skill.'
Independent
'Illicit love, betrayal and murder darken the pages of this atmospheric disquisition on the art world.'
Daily Mail
'Taut, disturbing!full of interesting observations about the late nineteenth -- and early twentieth-century art world !Mesmerising.'
Spectator
'A delicious Victorian shill descends as MacAlpine reveals and withholds details of past betrayals.'
Scotsman Praise for
'An Instance of the Fingerpost': 'This is a novel that combines the simple pleasures of Agatha Christie with the intellectual subtlety of Umberto Eco. It is a landmark in the genre.'
John Sutherland, Sunday Times
'Enthralling! 'An Instance of the Fingerpost'
is a brilliant achievement
!wholly absorbing.
T
.J. Binyon, Evening Standard 'A slippery thriller of audacious ingenuity.
Robert Minghall, Independent on Sunday Praise for
'The Dream of Scipio': 'Combining the visceral pleasures of a thriller with the more intellectual excitements of a novel of ideas.'
Sunday Telegraph
'Combines dazzling erudition with assured narrative skills to offer glimpses of some of history's darkest corners.'
Independent on Sunday
'Vivid, admirably imagined, ultimately very moving! This is a novel of the very highest ambition!Immediate, sensuous, beautiful.'
Allan Massie, Scotsman
About the Author
|
Iain Pears was born in 1955, educated at Wadham College, Oxford and won the Getty Scholarship to Yale University. He has worked as a journalist, an art historian and a television consultant. He is the author of many books, including the bestselling An Instance of the Fingerpost and The Dream Of Scipio.
He lives with his wife and son in Oxford.
More books by this author
Author 'Like for Like' recommendation |
|
|
|
 |
Book Info
|
 |
|
Categories
Loading other formats...
Categories
Literary / Contemporary
If you loved this, you might like these...
