{5\/5} “He had painted me at the center of the canvas, my hair flowing in ripples, my eyes direct and my expression as if I had just given a confidence that would not be repeated. And yet, there was something more underlying the image: Edward had captured in this beautiful face — far more beautiful than my own real face — a vulnerability that rendered the whole exquisite.”<\/p>\n
The Clockmaker’s Daughter<\/strong> by Kate Morton, published in 2018<\/p>\n Elodie works in an archive, and comes across a sketchbook from 100 years ago. She is stunned to find that she recognizes one of the sketches — a house by a river. It’s the exact setting of a story her mother used to tell her when she was a child. When she finds out the house exists in real life, she decides she must see it.<\/p>\n This book contains the stories of several people who lived in the same house at different times. You will inhabit the past while you’re reading it.<\/p>\n It’s about artists and models, beauty and home, robbery and murder, grief and guilt.<\/p>\n Morton’s previous 2 novels were realistic, but this one verges into fantasy — the title character is a ghost in present day.<\/p>\n One more quotation: “Life… the only truly fair thing about it is the randomness of its unfairness.”<\/p>\n And one more quotation: “Time is a strange and powerful beast. It has a habit of making the impossible possible.”<\/p>\n