Pentimenti

Pentimenti - an underlying image that has been painted over, only becoming visible when the later painting becomes transparent with age. Spanning the period from 1845 until the present, this novel charts the story of two dysfunctional families and follows the lives of three women: Flora Drake, Christa Westenberger and the art historian Ella Zellek. It is Ella whose trained eye discerns links between their destinies as she seeks to come to terms with the tensions between family ties and professional ambitions. An unmarried academic in her 50s, Ella's research skills and idiosyncratic life-view enable her to uncover some dark secrets as well as enabling fleeting encounters with the supernatural, as she encounters a range of disparate and engaging characters, both dead and alive. A novel about memories, dreams and reflections. Things which are forgotten and left behind yet are still capable of affecting the present. It shows how women's lives are impacted by social change and world events, and has an awareness of things lost, hidden and forgotten yet significant and abiding. A stand-alone novel which also extends personalities and story lines from the author's previous book Dangers, Toils and Snares