The Painter

Hag-Seed

Margaret Atwood · 320 pages

Felix is at the top of his game as artistic director of the Makeshiweg Theatre Festival. His productions have amazed and confounded. Now he's staging a Tempest like no other: not only will it boost his reputation, it will heal emotional wounds. Or that was the plan. Instead, after an act of unforeseen treachery, Felix is living in exile in a backwoods hovel, haunted by memories of his beloved lost

White Oleander

Janet Fitch · 390 pages

Everywhere hailed as a novel of rare beauty and power, White Oleander tells the unforgettable story of Ingrid, a brilliant poet imprisoned for murder, and her daughter, Astrid, whose odyssey through a series of Los Angeles foster homes-each its own universe, with its own laws, its own dangers, its own hard lessons to be learned-becomes a redeeming and surprising journey of self-discovery.

The Underpainter

Jane Urquhart · 340 pages

"The detached eye of the narrator never falters, though passion hums beneath the surface like some vast primeval beast beneath the ice. The mixing of paints becomes erotic, and the minute recalling of details is sensual...Characters appear like wraiths from the fog, become dazzling specks on a snowblind eye, encounter dreams and apparitions, while the cold, painted-out hero is laid before us in hi

The Portrait

Iain Pears · 224 pages

An art critic journeys to a remote island off Brittany to sit for a portrait painted by an old friend, a gifted but tormented artist living in self-imposed exile. The painter recalls their years of friendship, the gift of the critic's patronage, and his callous betrayals. As he struggles to capture the character of the man, as well as his image, on canvas, it becomes clear that there is much more

What I Loved

Siri Hustvedt · 384 pages

"What I Loved begins in New York in 1975, when art historian Leo Hertzberg discovers an extraordinary painting by an unknown artist in a SoHo gallery. He buys the work and tracks down the artist, Bill Wechsler, and the two men embark on a lifelong friendship.". "Leo's story, which spans twenty-five years, follows the evolution of the growing involvement between his family and Bill's - an intric

Rosshalde

Hermann Hesse · 213 pages

The Blue Guitar

John Banville · 255 pages

Oliver Otway Orme, a semi-famous artist and petty thief, despairing of limits in his talents, flees when his latest theft is discovered and sequesters himself in his childhood home, where he struggles to understand how he reached his current state.

The Three-Cornered World

Soseki Natsume · 184 pages

The story of an artist who retreats to a country resort hotel and becomes involved in a series of mysterious encounters.

The Bird Artist

Howard Norman · 289 pages

Howard Norman's The Bird Artist, the first book of his Canadian trilogy, begins in 1911. Its narrator, Fabian Vas is a bird artist: He draws and paints the birds of Witless Bay, his remote Newfoundland coastal village home. In the first paragraph of his tale Fabian reveals that he has murdered the village lighthouse keeper, Botho August. Later, he confesses who and what drove him to his crime--a m

The Goldfinch

Donna Tartt · 817 pages

"The Goldfinch is a rarity that comes along perhaps half a dozen times per decade, a smartly written literary novel that connects with the heart as well as the mind....Donna Tartt has delivered an extraordinary work of fiction."--Stephen King, The New York Times Book Review Composed with the skills of a master, The Goldfinch is a haunted odyssey through present day America and a drama of enthra

The Painter of Battles

Arturo Perez-Reverte · 218 pages

"A man lives alone in a watchtower by the sea. On the circular wails of the tower he is painting a grand mural - the timeless landscape of a battle. Andres Faulques is a former war photographer, and the painting is his attempt to capture the image that has always eluded him; to encapsulate, in an instant, the meaning of war. But then one day a stranger knocks on his door and announces that he has

Enon

Paul Harding · 256 pages

A grieving Charlie Crosby, grandson of Tinkers protagonist George Washington Crosby, attempts to come to terms with the death of his daughter Kate and the subsequent dissolution of his marriage.

All the Little Live Things

Wallace Stegner · 345 pages

An Eastern couple retire to California in search of peace after the death of their wayward son, only to have their paradise shattered by painful reminders of the past.

Islands in the Stream

Ernest Hemingway · 448 pages

A posthumously published novel in three parts. Set in the Caribbean, the stories follow the main character during different periods of his life. The first part introduces Thomas Hudson, an American artist living quietly on a small island in the Bahamas. His tranquil life is disturbed by the arrival of his three young children who need to be entertained. The two youngest boys die in an accident sho

A Line Made by Walking

Sara Baume · 321 pages

Retreating to her family's rural house in Ireland to escape the challenges of urban life, artist Frankie explores the chain of events that have challenged her mental stability and art education. As she picks up photography once more, she searches for meaning and healing while examining the natural world around her.

Autumn Laing

Alex Miller · 452 pages

Autumn Laing has long outlived the legendary circle of artists she cultivated in the 1930s. Now 'old and skeleton gaunt', she reflects on her tumultuous relationship with the abundantly talented Pat Donlon and the effect it had on her husband, on Pat's wife and the body of work which launched Pat's career. A brilliantly alive and insistently energetic story of love, loyalty and creativity.

The Last Painting of Sara de Vos

Dominic Smith · 344 pages

Georgia: A Novel of Georgia O'Keeffe

Dawn Tripp · 336 pages

Duma Key

Stephen King · 704 pages

After a construction accident in which he loses his right arm and his divorce, Edgar Freemantle moves from Minnesota to Florida to begin what his psychiatrist described as a "geographic cure." He rediscovers his love of painting and finds that he is good at it but his paintings seem to have something "more" to them. On Duma Key he also finds a new friendship with Wireman, a kindred spirit seekin

The Testament of Mary

Colm Toibin · 112 pages

Mr Mac and Me

Esther Freud · 304 pages

1914 - In the village of Dunwich on the Suffolk coast young Thomas Maggs befriends mysterious Scotsman and artist, Charles Rennie Mackintosh, whom the locals call Mac. Just as Thomas and Mac's friendship begins to bloom, war with Germany is declared and as the war weighs increasingly heavily on the community, the villagers on the home front become increasingly suspicious of Mac and his curious be

Girl with a Pearl Earring

Tracy Chevalier · 248 pages

This book "centres on Vermeer's prosperous household in Delft in the 1660s. The appointment of the quiet, perceptive heroine of the novel, the servant Griet, gradually throws the household into turmoil as Vermeer and Griet become increasingly intimate, an increasingly tense situation that culminates in her working for Vermeer as his assistant, and ultimately sitting for him as a model. Chevalier d

Dancer

Colum McCann · 352 pages

A Russian peasant who became an international legend, a Cold War exile who inspired millions, an artist whose name stood for genius, sex, and excess--the magnificence of Rudolf Nureyev's life and work are known, but in this novel McCann reinvents this erotically charged figure, willful, lustful, and driven by a never-to-be-met need for perfection, through the light he cast on those who knew him. S

In the Woods

Tana French · 560 pages

A gorgeously written novel that marks the debut of an astonishing new voice in psychological suspenseAs dusk approaches a small Dublin suburb in the summer of 1984, mothers begin to call their children home. But on this warm evening, three children do not return from the dark and silent woods. When the police arrive, they find only one of the children gripping a tree trunk in terror, wearing blood