When troubled artist Rachel Kelly dies painting obsessively in her attic studio in Penzance, her saintly husband and adult children have more than the usual mess to clear up. She leaves behind an extraordinary and acclaimed body of work - but she also leaves a legacy of secrets and emotional damage that will take months to unravel.
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[Rachel was woken by a painting, or, rather, by the idea of one]***
(@HarperPerennial, 7 January 2008, first published 2007, 377 pages, paperback, bought from @BarnardosScot)
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This is my first time reading the author. I really enjoyed this so I might check out his other books. I enjoyed the structure of the novel, each chapter opens with a description of one of Rachel's pieces of art work and then the chapter focuses on keys moments and events in her life and interactions with family, friends, including her career and experience of being bipolar. This works really well. The author does a brilliant job of exploring a fractured, dysfunctional family. This is a gentle book in a way, slow paced with no action pieces but thoroughly enjoyable.
