My Family and Other Animals

The Last Painting of Sara De Vos by Dominic Smith


Wow!!!

I read this book in about a week. I had decided to get it out on my ipad from the library as an ebook. When I got to about page 380 my library membership for some inexplicable reason expired!!!!!  I lost access to the book and was running around like a loony tune trying to get it back. I was desperate!!

After getting it back the next day I proceeded to finish it as quickly as possible before any other disaster of such magnitude could occur again.

I found this a really rapid moving story. It was written in three (3) different time's  - 1651 in the Netherland's with Sara de Vos, wife, mother and painter; 1957 Brooklyn, New York with Ellie Shipley, aspiring artist, cash poor student; and 2000 Sydney, Australia with a mature Ellie (Eleanor) Shipley.

Ellie Shipley does painting restorations and is asked to paint a forgery. The painting is none other than Sara de Vos's 'at the edge of the wood'. The story gives a window into the life of Sara de Vos in 1650's Netherland. It also tells us about a confused, angry and cash poor university student and how she paints her forgery, before moving to the year 2000 when a mature Ellie Shipley is confronted with her past. The story moved effortlessly between each time and I had no trouble following the story.

I so enjoyed this book and am definitely going to re-read this again. Next time at the library I will be browsing for some of Dominic Smith's other books.

Here is a link to his homepage http://www.dominicsmith.net/the_last_painting_of_sara_de_vos.php
and Facebook https://www.facebook.com/dominicfiction/


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