Description
“In Clare Clark’s terrific new novel, In the Full Light of the Sun, the story of van Gogh’s posthumous rise to fame bursts from history like a spurt of the artist’s beloved chrome yellow from a tube of paint.”xa0— New York Times Book Review “ In the Full Light of the Sun is clearly the product of smart, painstaking research, yet it reads like lived experience...The result is a novel as intricate as filigree in its structure and as powerful as a storm surge in its headlong sweep...Clark has outdone herself.”xa0— Seattle Times “Clark brilliantly evokes both the decadence of Weimar Berlin and the impending Nazi menace. Her characters’ singular struggles prove riveting...Above all, though, it is the heightened intrigue that keeps us invested.”— Minneapolis Star Tribune “As compelling as it is expansive . . . In an age that has apparently lost faith in experts and verifiable sources of information, Clark’s fictionalization of the Wacker affair stands as a salutary tale for the post-truth era.” — Guardian (UK) “ A gripping and ultimately moving story about art, artifice and authenticity.” — Mail on Sunday (UK) “With great skill and sympathy, Clark evokes a febrile society in which politics, love and art offer no certainties, and the ground always threatens to open beneath her characters’ feet.” — Sunday Times (UK) "Clark's mastery of historic and artistic details merges with skillful plotting and compelling characters in this accomplished novel. A suspenseful, atmospheric portrait of Berlin during Hitler's rise." — Kirkus Reviews "Infused with Clark’s signature attention to historical detail...Evocative prose and excellent pacing make this fine historical a must-read for art history buffs." — Publishers Weekly — CLARE CLARK is the author of four novels, including The Great Stink, which was long-listed for the Orange Prize and named a Washington Post Best Book of the Year, and Savage Lands , also long-listed for the Orange Prize. Her work has been translated into five languages. She lives in London.
Features & Highlights
- Based on a true story, this gorgeous novel follows the fortunes of three Berliners caught up in an art scandal—involving newly discovered van Goghs—that rocks Germany amid the Nazis’ rise to power.
- In the turbulent years between the wars, nothing in Berlin is quite what it seems. Not for Emmeline, a wayward young artist freewheeling wildly through the city in search of meaning. Not for Julius, an eminent art connoisseur who finds it easier to love paintings than people. And most definitely not for Frank, a Jewish lawyer who must find a way to protect his family and his principles as the Nazis begin their rise to power. But the greatest enigma of them all is Matthias, the mercurial art dealer who connects them all. Charming and ambitious, he will provoke a scandal—involving newly discovered paintings by Vincent van Gogh—that turns all of their lives upside down. Inspired by true events, this brilliant, humane novel peels back the cherished illusions that sustain us to reveal the truths beneath. A book about beauty and justice, vanity and self-delusion, it asks: Do we see only what we want to see? Even in the full light of the sun?
