Published in 2024
367 pages
Emily Howes is the author of numerous short stories that have been shortlisted for the Bridport Prize, the Bath Short Story Award, and the New Scottish Writing Award. Her debut novel, The Painter’s Daughters, was the winner of the 2021 Mslexia Novel Prize for unpublished manuscripts. In addition to writing fiction, Emily has been a theater director and performer. She works as a psychotherapist in private practice and is completing a masters in existential psychotherapy.
What is this book about?
1759, Ipswich. Sisters Peggy and Molly Gainsborough are the best of friends and do everything together. They spy on their father as he paints, they rankle their mother as she manages the books, they tear barefoot through the muddy fields that surround their home. But there is another reason they are inseparable: from a young age, Molly has had a tendency to forget who she is, to fall into confusion, and Peggy knows instinctively that no one must find out.
When the family move to Bath, Thomas Gainsborough finds fame as a portrait artist, while his daughters are thrown into the whirl of polite society. Here, the merits of marriage and codes of behaviour are crystal clear, and secrets much harder to keep. As Peggy goes to greater lengths to protect her sister, she finds herself falling in love, and their precarious situation is soon thrown catastrophically off-course. The discovery of a betrayal forces her to question all she has done for Molly – and whether any one person can truly change the fate of another . . .
Inspired by true events and told with irresistible vibrancy and wit, Emily Howes’ award-winning debut is a captivating and deeply moving novel about art, sisterhood and the price we pay for love.
