Description: From the author of A Perfectly Good Man, the bestselling story of an artist tormented by depression and the toll of creativity. When troubled artist Rachel Kelly dies painting obsessively in her attic studio in Penzance, her saintly husband and adult children have more than the usual mess to clear up. She leaves behind an extraordinary and acclaimed body of work - but she also leaves a legacy of secrets and emotional damage it will take months to unravel. A wondrous, monstrous creature, she exerts a power that outlives her. To her children she is both curse and blessing, though they all in one way or another reap her whirlwind, inheriting her waywardness, her power of loving - and her demons...Only their father's Quaker gifts of stillness and resilience give them any chance of withstanding her destructive influence and the suspicion that they came a poor second to the creation of her art. The reader becomes a detective, piecing together the clues of a life - as artist, lover, mother, wife and patient - which takes them from contemporary Penzance to 1960s Toronto to St Ives in the 1970s. What emerges is a story of enduring love, and of a family which weathers tragedy, mental illness and the intolerable strain of living with genius. Patrick Gale's latest novel shines with intelligence, humour and tenderness. Lead title * The brilliant new novel from bestseller Patrick Gale - 'Notes From An Exhibition' is a touching and tragic story of one family and the love and loss of their genius mother. * 'Rough Music' has sold over 70,000 copies since publication in the UK alone. Competition: Armistead Maupin

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