A novel that heroically refuses to simplify anything ... What’s more unexpected is the complete deftness with which she transforms it into a novel at her first attempt. In fact, the pages fly by so readably that it’s only thinking about the book later – or reviewing it – that you realise quite how rich it is ... The Painter’s Daughters does have one flaw: at times Peggy can seem suspiciously like a 21st-century feminist plonked down in the 1700s, with her articulate chafing against the patriarchy.
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