Molly & the Captain

Anthony Quinn

From Shelf: Hotly anticipated, October 2023

From the award-winning author of Curtain Call, Freya and Our Friends in Berlin comes a sweeping story of art and love through the lens of a single painting

'A gripping mystery... sweeping across centuries in its three interlinked sections, Molly & the Captain summons the past effortlessly' ObserverA celebrated artist of the Georgian era paints his two young daughters at the family home in Bath. The portrait, known as "Molly & the Captain", becomes instantly famous. In the summer of 1889, a young painter glimpses a mother at play with her two daughters in Kensington Gardens and decides to include them in his picture. A century later, in Kentish Town, a painter and her grown-up daughters receive news of an ancestor linking them to the long-vanished double portrait. Molly & the Captain is a story about time and art and love. Through the prism of a single painting it examines the mysteries of creativity, and the ambiguous nature of success. With period subtlety, intricate characterisation and storytelling verve, Anthony Quinn melds three families and three centuries into a single vision of human frailty and longing. 'A delicious mystery' Daily Mail'A thrilling read' Spectator'So versatile - Quinn seems to reinvent himself with every book' Jonathan Coe