Van Rijn - Sarah Emily Miano

Pieter Blaeu, a young publisher from a family of famous cartographers, meets the aged, destitute painter, Rembrandt van Rijn, on a tour of artists' studios in 1667, and is quickly enticed into his theatre of life through a strange mixture of admiration and repulsion. As Pieter delves into this shadowy world, he crosses paths with a fanciful troupe of characters, both living and dead: the painter's relatives, friends, sitters and patrons, whose stories are sometimes bawdy and humorous, at other times philosophical and macabre. Meanwhile, Rembrandt is keeping a private journal, a dog-eared black tablet where he records everything from his rules of art and life to his dramas and recipes-or what he calls 'the caprices of my restless brain'.

When Pieter encounters a poet named Clara whose interest in Rembrandt equals his own, a love story emerges. Together the lovers attempt to unmask an ambitious man in pursuit of a fugitive truth, from his ascent to fame and wealth to his descent into unpopularity and poverty, seeking clues about his character . . . if only he weren't such a master at playing hide-and-seek.

'Miano's writing displays all the verve, erudition and originality one might expect from such a hotly tipped new talent' Guardian