“I secretly like the idea that you could have a painting so powerful it could shake up a whole marriage.”
This was my first Moyes book; not knowing what to expect, this beautiful book amazed me. It keeps up with its elements of a chic lit novel, but it is so much more than that. This story depicts how a painting is so much more than just brushstrokes and splashes of colors. How I wish we could have seen this painting that connected and tore two women living a century apart. This review is not going to give you a shred of the magical, heart-wrenching journey the book took me through.
It's 1916, in the backdrop of the WW1, a small family is trying to keep a run down bar open for their livelihood, as the Germans march the streets. Sophie lived in this shackled structure with her brother, sister and her sister’s children. A place they call home, with the minimal essentials to survive. When one day it takes a turn. The German commander decides that their hotel is the place he will dine in everyday with the rest of his troop. The ingredients for the food came for that many soldiers on a daily basis, and on some days it was possible for Sophie’s family to feast on the leftovers.
Soon the Commander grows a great fondness for a painting that hung at the bar. A portrait of a younger Sophie, painted by her husband, who was out on the front, in combat. As their friendship grew over the love of art, Sophie started to consider him as a friend. Enough to think that she could offer him the painting, the only thing that kept her attached to her love, in exchange of her husband’s return from the dreadful place he was in. What happened next was a jolt to many. Sophie was shamed in front of her town and dragged away by the Germans, and she knew she was never going to see her family again.
Nearly a century later this painting is found comforting another woman. It was all Liv needed to remind her of her life with a husband who had now passed away. Liv having recently met someone was ready to take a step forward, to move on in her life. Now, the same man whom she has started to adore is trying to take this painting away from her. Then, begins a battle over love, art and the history of it all.
A painting that has changed the destiny of these two women is anticipating its own fate.
Moyes’ writing is enchanting and the narration flows with such ease that you don’t realize the impact of the characters and the story has on you till much later. This is a story about two women who hold on the same piece of memory they have of their loved one to get by each day and what happens when it is taken away from them, in different eras. This just goes to show the strength of the women and their ability to cope in wretched and unimaginable circumstances. As gloomy as the saga was, the last few lines had me smiling from ear to ear.