The Painter's Daughters
The award-winning debut novel selected for BBC Radio 2 Book Club
-
- £8.99
-
- £8.99
Publisher Description
THE NUMBER ONE KINDLE BESTSELLER
SELECTED FOR THE BBC RADIO 2 BOOK CLUB
WINNER OF THE MSLEXIA NOVEL COMPETITION
'Beautifully written . . . I raced through it' HILARY MANTEL
'As exquisitely and tenderly rendered as a Gainsborough painting' TRACY CHEVALIER
'A wonderfully powerful and haunting novel with a hugely gripping plot' DEBORAH MOGGACH
'A rich evocation of secrets, art, sisterhood and class' i PAPER
1759, Ipswich. Sisters Peggy and Molly Gainsborough are the best of friends and do everything together. They spy on their father as he paints, they rankle their mother as she manages the books, they tear barefoot through the muddy fields that surround their home. But there is another reason they are inseparable: from a young age, Molly has had a tendency to forget who she is, to fall into confusion, and Peggy knows instinctively that no one must find out.
When the family move to Bath, Thomas Gainsborough finds fame as a portrait artist, while his daughters are thrown into the whirl of polite society. Here, the merits of marriage and codes of behaviour are crystal clear, and secrets much harder to keep. As Peggy goes to greater lengths to protect her sister, she finds herself falling in love, and their precarious situation is soon thrown catastrophically off-course. The discovery of a betrayal forces her to question all she has done for Molly - and whether any one person can truly change the fate of another . . .
Inspired by true events and told with irresistible vibrancy and wit, Emily Howes' award-winning debut is a captivating and deeply moving novel about art, sisterhood and the price we pay for love.
'Vividly imagined and exquisitely brought to the page' RACHEL JOYCE
'A beautiful debut' JO BROWNING WROE
'An incredible first novel that'll leave you scouring the real-life paintings for clues' STYLIST
'Fascinating' WASHINGTON POST
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Psychotherapist and sketch comedy writer Howes (The Ladies) portrays sisterhood, family secrets, and mental illness in her intricate and vibrant debut. The novel takes place in late-18th-century Ipswich, England, where as young girls, Peggy and Molly Gainsborough are given free rein by their emotionally absent painter father and corralled by their society-conscious mother. Molly's bouts of sleepwalking, blackouts, and memory loss have been increasing in frequency, despite Peggy's attempts to help her sister in an era when mental illness was viewed as witchcraft and loved ones were shipped to asylums. Terrified of separation, Peggy shoulders the burden of her sister's episodes alone, a responsibility that becomes even heavier when the girls are 12 and 13 and the family moves to Bath, where they must make a good impression so their father can bring in customers for portraits. The novel is rife with secrets—including a past the sisters' mother refuses to speak about, forbidden lovers, and the mysterious interwoven story of an innkeeper's daughter and her abusive father—but the Gainsboroughs persevere through illness and betrayal. Though a rushed ending feels out of sync with the carefully laid details of the sisters' lives, Howes excels in her depiction of truth and rumors. Readers will want to linger in this singular world.
