The Artist's Widow

FROM THE AUTHOR SHORTLISTED FOR THE BOOKER PRIZE (1996) AND THE WHITBREAD PRIZE (2003)

[Her] prose is a joy to read MICHAEL ARDITTI, INDEPENDENT

This is a vicious little book, and thus all the more enjoyable PAUL BAUMANN, NEW YORK TIMES

A . . . funny, and ultimately movingKIRKUS REVIEWS

The Artists Widow is the story of the good, the bad and the untalented. It begins on a hot August evening in Mayfair, at a private viewing of the Last Paintings of John Crane. Among those present are Cranes widow, Lyris, also a painter; her friend Clovis Ingram, a middle-aged bookseller; Zoe, a beautiful young television filmmaker; and Lyriss great-nephew Nathan Pursey, a boorish young conceptual artist.

None of them realises that the evening will change their lives forever.

The Artists Widow is a novel about the nature of the artistic impulse - about friendship, betrayal, courage and cowardice. It is also a London novel, exploring the mental and physical geography of the city in all its variety.