-
The Last Painting of Sara de Vos
- A Novel
- Narrated by: Edoardo Ballerini
- Length: 9 hrs and 57 mins
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed

Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Buy for $20.24
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
Listeners also enjoyed...
-
Tom Lake
- A Novel
- By: Ann Patchett
- Narrated by: Meryl Streep
- Length: 11 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the spring of 2020, Lara’s three daughters return to the family's orchard in Northern Michigan. While picking cherries, they beg their mother to tell them the story of Peter Duke, a famous actor with whom she shared both a stage and a romance years before at a theater company called Tom Lake. As Lara recalls the past, her daughters examine their own lives and relationship with their mother, and are forced to reconsider the world and everything they thought they knew.
-
-
So incredibly boring
- By Rhonda Morrison on 08-05-23
By: Ann Patchett
-
Return to Valetto
- A Novel
- By: Dominic Smith
- Narrated by: Edoardo Ballerini
- Length: 9 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
On a hilltop in Umbria sits Valetto. Once a thriving village—and a hub of resistance and refuge during World War II—centuries of earthquakes, landslides, and the lure of a better life have left it neglected. Only ten residents remain, including the widows Serafino—three eccentric sisters and their steely centenarian mother—who live quietly in their medieval villa. Then their nephew and grandson, Hugh, a historian, returns. But someone else has arrived before him, laying claim to the cottage where Hugh spent his childhood summers.
By: Dominic Smith
-
The Electric Hotel
- A Novel
- By: Dominic Smith
- Narrated by: Edoardo Ballerini
- Length: 11 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Dominic Smith’s The Electric Hotel winds through the nascent days of cinema in Paris and Fort Lee, New Jersey - America’s first movie town - and on the battlefields of Belgium during World War I. A sweeping work of historical fiction, it shimmers between past and present as it tells the story of the rise and fall of a prodigious film studio and one man’s doomed obsession with all that passes in front of the viewfinder.
-
-
Historical fiction at its best
- By Steve on 11-22-20
By: Dominic Smith
-
The Covenant of Water
- By: Abraham Verghese
- Narrated by: Abraham Verghese
- Length: 31 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Spanning the years 1900 to 1977, The Covenant of Water is set in Kerala, on South India’s Malabar Coast, and follows three generations of a family that suffers a peculiar affliction: in every generation, at least one person dies by drowning—and in Kerala, water is everywhere. At the turn of the century, a twelve-year-old girl from Kerala’s long-existing Christian community, grieving the death of her father, is sent by boat to her wedding, where she will meet her forty-year-old husband for the first time.
-
-
Story Telling At Its Best
- By Regina on 05-06-23
By: Abraham Verghese
-
The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store
- A Novel
- By: James McBride
- Narrated by: Dominic Hoffman
- Length: 12 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In 1972, when workers in Pottstown, Pennsylvania, were digging the foundations for a new development, the last thing they expected to find was a skeleton at the bottom of a well. Who the skeleton was and how it got there were two of the long-held secrets kept by the residents of Chicken Hill, the dilapidated neighborhood where immigrant Jews and African Americans lived side by side and shared ambitions and sorrows.
-
-
Multiple Stories Obfuscate Narrative
- By Stephnsea on 08-12-23
By: James McBride
-
Horse
- A Novel
- By: Geraldine Brooks
- Narrated by: James Fouhey, Lisa Flanagan, Graham Halstead, and others
- Length: 14 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Kentucky, 1850. An enslaved groom named Jarret and a bay foal forge a bond of understanding that will carry the horse to record-setting victories across the South. New York City, 1954. Martha Jackson, a gallery owner celebrated for taking risks on edgy contemporary painters, becomes obsessed with a nineteenth-century equestrian oil painting of mysterious provenance. Washington, DC, 2019. Jess, a Smithsonian scientist from Australia, and Theo, a Nigerian-American art historian, find themselves unexpectedly connected through their shared interest in the horse.
-
-
Love Geraldine Brooks
- By Regina on 06-25-22
By: Geraldine Brooks
-
Tom Lake
- A Novel
- By: Ann Patchett
- Narrated by: Meryl Streep
- Length: 11 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the spring of 2020, Lara’s three daughters return to the family's orchard in Northern Michigan. While picking cherries, they beg their mother to tell them the story of Peter Duke, a famous actor with whom she shared both a stage and a romance years before at a theater company called Tom Lake. As Lara recalls the past, her daughters examine their own lives and relationship with their mother, and are forced to reconsider the world and everything they thought they knew.
-
-
So incredibly boring
- By Rhonda Morrison on 08-05-23
By: Ann Patchett
-
Return to Valetto
- A Novel
- By: Dominic Smith
- Narrated by: Edoardo Ballerini
- Length: 9 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
On a hilltop in Umbria sits Valetto. Once a thriving village—and a hub of resistance and refuge during World War II—centuries of earthquakes, landslides, and the lure of a better life have left it neglected. Only ten residents remain, including the widows Serafino—three eccentric sisters and their steely centenarian mother—who live quietly in their medieval villa. Then their nephew and grandson, Hugh, a historian, returns. But someone else has arrived before him, laying claim to the cottage where Hugh spent his childhood summers.
By: Dominic Smith
-
The Electric Hotel
- A Novel
- By: Dominic Smith
- Narrated by: Edoardo Ballerini
- Length: 11 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Dominic Smith’s The Electric Hotel winds through the nascent days of cinema in Paris and Fort Lee, New Jersey - America’s first movie town - and on the battlefields of Belgium during World War I. A sweeping work of historical fiction, it shimmers between past and present as it tells the story of the rise and fall of a prodigious film studio and one man’s doomed obsession with all that passes in front of the viewfinder.
-
-
Historical fiction at its best
- By Steve on 11-22-20
By: Dominic Smith
-
The Covenant of Water
- By: Abraham Verghese
- Narrated by: Abraham Verghese
- Length: 31 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Spanning the years 1900 to 1977, The Covenant of Water is set in Kerala, on South India’s Malabar Coast, and follows three generations of a family that suffers a peculiar affliction: in every generation, at least one person dies by drowning—and in Kerala, water is everywhere. At the turn of the century, a twelve-year-old girl from Kerala’s long-existing Christian community, grieving the death of her father, is sent by boat to her wedding, where she will meet her forty-year-old husband for the first time.
-
-
Story Telling At Its Best
- By Regina on 05-06-23
By: Abraham Verghese
-
The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store
- A Novel
- By: James McBride
- Narrated by: Dominic Hoffman
- Length: 12 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In 1972, when workers in Pottstown, Pennsylvania, were digging the foundations for a new development, the last thing they expected to find was a skeleton at the bottom of a well. Who the skeleton was and how it got there were two of the long-held secrets kept by the residents of Chicken Hill, the dilapidated neighborhood where immigrant Jews and African Americans lived side by side and shared ambitions and sorrows.
-
-
Multiple Stories Obfuscate Narrative
- By Stephnsea on 08-12-23
By: James McBride
-
Horse
- A Novel
- By: Geraldine Brooks
- Narrated by: James Fouhey, Lisa Flanagan, Graham Halstead, and others
- Length: 14 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Kentucky, 1850. An enslaved groom named Jarret and a bay foal forge a bond of understanding that will carry the horse to record-setting victories across the South. New York City, 1954. Martha Jackson, a gallery owner celebrated for taking risks on edgy contemporary painters, becomes obsessed with a nineteenth-century equestrian oil painting of mysterious provenance. Washington, DC, 2019. Jess, a Smithsonian scientist from Australia, and Theo, a Nigerian-American art historian, find themselves unexpectedly connected through their shared interest in the horse.
-
-
Love Geraldine Brooks
- By Regina on 06-25-22
By: Geraldine Brooks
-
Lessons in Chemistry
- A Novel
- By: Bonnie Garmus
- Narrated by: Miranda Raison, Bonnie Garmus, Pandora Sykes
- Length: 11 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Chemist Elizabeth Zott is not your average woman. In fact, Elizabeth Zott would be the first to point out that there is no such thing as an average woman. But it’s the early 1960s and her all-male team at Hastings Research Institute takes a very unscientific view of equality. Except for one: Calvin Evans; the lonely, brilliant, Nobel–prize nominated grudge-holder who falls in love with—of all things—her mind. True chemistry results.
-
-
Science vs Religion
- By TX Amazon Shopper on 04-29-22
By: Bonnie Garmus
-
The Paris Deception
- By: Bryn Turnbull
- Narrated by: Mary Jane Wells
- Length: 12 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Sophie Dix fled Stuttgart with her brother as the Nazi regime gained power in Germany. Now, with her brother gone and her adopted home city of Paris conquered by the Reich, Sophie reluctantly accepts a position restoring damaged art at the Jeu de Paume museum under the supervision of the ERR—a German art commission using the museum as a repository for art they’ve looted from Jewish families.
-
-
Fascinating Page Turner with Heart
- By Syd Young on 06-03-23
By: Bryn Turnbull
-
Demon Copperhead
- A Novel
- By: Barbara Kingsolver
- Narrated by: Charlie Thurston
- Length: 21 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Set in the mountains of southern Appalachia, Demon Copperhead is the story of a boy born to a teenaged single mother in a single-wide trailer, with no assets beyond his dead father’s good looks and copper-colored hair, a caustic wit, and a fierce talent for survival. Relayed in his own unsparing voice, Demon braves the modern perils of foster care, child labor, derelict schools, athletic success, addiction, disastrous loves, and crushing losses.
-
-
Wow! It’s a Masterpiece
- By Billy on 10-25-22
-
Remarkably Bright Creatures
- A Novel
- By: Shelby Van Pelt
- Narrated by: Marin Ireland, Michael Urie
- Length: 11 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
For fans of A Man Called Ove, a luminous debut novel about a widow’s unlikely friendship with a giant Pacific octopus reluctantly residing at the local aquarium—and the truths she finally uncovers about her son’s disappearance 30 years ago.
-
-
Hidden gem, incredible narration!
- By Christine T on 05-17-22
By: Shelby Van Pelt
-
The Marriage Portrait
- A Novel
- By: Maggie O'Farrell
- Narrated by: Genevieve Gaunt, Maggie O'Farrell
- Length: 13 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Florence, the 1550s. Lucrezia, third daughter of the grand duke, is comfortable with her obscure place in the palazzo: free to wonder at its treasures, observe its clandestine workings, and to devote herself to her own artistic pursuits. But when her older sister dies on the eve of her wedding, Lucrezia is thrust into the limelight: the duke is quick to request her hand in marriage, and her father just as quick to accept on her behalf. Having barely left girlhood behind, Lucrezia must make her way in a court whose customs are opaque and where her arrival is not universally welcomed.
-
-
If You Love Alternate Histories, Get This
- By Jim on 09-26-22
By: Maggie O'Farrell
-
Muralist
- By: B. A. Shapiro
- Narrated by: Xe Sands
- Length: 9 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Alizée Benoit, an American painter working for the Works Progress Administration (WPA), vanishes in New York City in 1940 amid personal and political turmoil. No one knows what happened to her. Not her Jewish family living in German-occupied France. Not her artistic patron and political compatriot, Eleanor Roosevelt. Not her close-knit group of friends, including Mark Rothko, Jackson Pollock, and Lee Krasner.
-
-
Like the Beginning; Indifferent About the Rest
- By alyxsheerheart on 12-02-15
By: B. A. Shapiro
-
Beautiful Ruins
- By: Jess Walter
- Narrated by: Edoardo Ballerini
- Length: 12 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The story begins in 1962. On a rocky patch of the sun-drenched Italian coastline, a young innkeeper, chest-deep in daydreams, looks out over the incandescent waters of the Ligurian Sea and spies an apparition: a tall, thin woman, a vision in white, approaching him on a boat. She is an actress, he soon learns, an American starlet, and she is dying. And the story begins again today, half a world away, when an elderly Italian man shows up on a movie studio's back lot - searching for the mysterious woman he last saw at his hotel decades earlier.
-
-
My mind wandered
- By Ella on 11-25-12
By: Jess Walter
-
The Art Forger
- By: B. A. Shapiro
- Narrated by: Xe Sands
- Length: 10 hrs
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Making a living reproducing famous artworks for a popular online retailer and desperate to improve her situation, Claire is lured into a Faustian bargain with Aiden Markel, a powerful gallery owner. She agrees to forge a painting - a Degas masterpiece stolen from the Gardner Museum - in exchange for a one-woman show in his renowned gallery. But when that very same long-missing Degas painting is delivered to Claire's studio, she begins to suspect that it may itself be a forgery. Her desperate search for the truth leads Claire into a labyrinth of deceit where secrets hidden since the late 19th century may be the only evidence that can now save her life.
-
-
The Art Forger
- By Cynthia on 01-02-13
By: B. A. Shapiro
-
The Art Thief
- A True Story of Love, Crime, and a Dangerous Obsession
- By: Michael Finkel
- Narrated by: Edoardo Ballerini, Michael Finkel
- Length: 5 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
For centuries, works of art have been stolen in countless ways from all over the world, but no one has been quite as successful at it as the master thief Stéphane Breitwieser. Carrying out more than two hundred heists over nearly eight years—in museums and cathedrals all over Europe—Breitwieser, along with his girlfriend who worked as his lookout, stole more than three hundred objects, until it all fell apart in spectacular fashion.
-
-
A book that's steals your attention!
- By samy on 07-23-23
By: Michael Finkel
-
The Secret Life of Sunflowers
- By: Marta Molnar, Dana Marton
- Narrated by: Kendra Murray
- Length: 9 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When Hollywood auctioneer Emsley Wilson finds her famous grandmother's diary while cleaning out her New York brownstone, the pages are full of surprises. The first surprise is, the diary isn't her grandmother's. It belongs to Johanna Bonger, Vincent van Gogh's sister-in-law.
-
-
Nothing like a expected…
- By LOVETOQUILT on 05-06-23
By: Marta Molnar, and others
-
Rules of Civility
- A Novel
- By: Amor Towles
- Narrated by: Rebecca Lowman
- Length: 12 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
On the last night of 1937, 25-year-old Katey Kontent is in a second-rate Greenwich Village jazz bar when Tinker Grey, a handsome banker, happens to sit down at the neighboring table. This chance encounter and its startling consequences propel Katey on a year-long journey into the upper echelons of New York society - where she will have little to rely upon other than a bracing wit and her own brand of cool nerve.
-
-
Bright Young Things in a Dark World
- By Michele Kellett on 08-13-12
By: Amor Towles
-
The Goldfinch
- By: Donna Tartt
- Narrated by: David Pittu
- Length: 32 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Goldfinch is a haunted odyssey through present-day America and a drama of enthralling force and acuity. It begins with a boy. Theo Decker, a 13-year-old New Yorker, miraculously survives an accident that kills his mother. Abandoned by his father, Theo is taken in by the family of a wealthy friend. Bewildered by his strange new home on Park Avenue, disturbed by schoolmates who don't know how to talk to him, and tormented above all by his unbearable longing for his mother, he clings to one thing that reminds him of her: a small, mysteriously captivating painting that ultimately draws Theo into the underworld of art.
-
-
Boy, am I in the minority on this one.
- By Bonny on 11-04-13
By: Donna Tartt
Publisher's summary
A masterful new story charts the circuitous course of the sole surviving work of a female Dutch painter.
This is what we long for: the profound pleasure of being swept into vivid new worlds, worlds peopled by characters so intriguing and real that we can't shake them, even long after the audio's done.
In his award-winning earlier novels, Dominic Smith demonstrated a gift for coaxing the past to life. Now, in The Last Painting of Sara de Vos, he deftly bridges the historical and the contemporary, tracking a collision course between a rare landscape by a female Dutch painter of the golden age, an inheritor of the work in 1950s Manhattan, and a celebrated art historian who painted a forgery of it in her youth.
In 1631, Sara de Vos is admitted as a master painter to the Guild of St. Luke's in Holland, the first woman to be so recognized. Three hundred years later, only one work attributed to de Vos is known to remain - a haunting winter scene, At the Edge of a Wood, which hangs over the bed of a wealthy descendant of the original owner. An Australian grad student, Ellie Shipley, struggling to stay afloat in New York, agrees to paint a forgery of the landscape, a decision that will haunt her. Because now, half a century later, she's curating an exhibit of female Dutch painters, and both versions threaten to arrive.
As the three threads intersect, The Last Painting of Sara de Vos mesmerizes while it grapples with the demands of the artistic life, showing how the deceits of the past can forge the present.
This audiobook includes a reading group guide read by the author.
More from the same
What listeners say about The Last Painting of Sara de Vos
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Mel
- 04-18-16
Undone by Cadmium Yellow
Though it might be an obvious maneuver to compare this book about a piece of art to standing in front of an actual masterpiece and observing its brilliance and story come alive, Dominic Smith has written a book that reveals itself similarly, if you'll pardon the analogy. In this elegantly constructed story about history, beauty, loss, and morality, Smith layers each element as meticulously as a master craftsman -- the stroke of the brush, the stroke of the pen -- bringing history alive and present in an intrigue of forgery (on many levels), revenge and revelation. His talent and intelligence are reflected in dazzling atmospheres, detailed histories, and the arc of three intertwining worlds inhabited by perfectly nuanced characters.
The 17th century painting [1636], "At the Edge of a Wood" is privately owned, passed down through 300 years as part of the fortune of the de Groot's of Amsterdam, where it now hangs above the Park Avenue "marital bed" of one Martin de Groot and his wife Rachel. An affected lawyer with generations of bequeathed wealth, the painting holds more than just monetary value to Marty. Beyond it's beauty, he sees in its provenance the generations of de Groot's that suffered from "gout, rheumatism, heart failure, intermittent barrenness and stroke," and early death that began after Pieter de Groot purchased the painting at an auction by the Delft Guild of St. Luke in 1637, to benefit the “Chamber of Orphans”. The artist, Sara de Vos, was the first woman allowed to be a member of the prestigious guild which counted among its members Rembrandt and Vermeer. But for Marty, the painting is equally a reminder of his wife's own inability to conceive over the many years, his stagnate job, his own health, in a life too used to the comforts and luxuries of money.
In an ironic twist that seems to bear out the painting's curse, the art is stolen from the couple's apartment while they are hosting a benefit dinner for... the orphans’ aid society. The theft is not realized until several months later. Marty uncovering the forgery also has an epiphany--since the theft he and his wife's lives have improved exponentially. From this point of realization, the narratives expand and move through history, seeming effortlessly in their complexities in Smith's hands, intersecting the people effected by the painting, from 17th century Amsterdam and finally to Australia in 2000. Marty reluctantly pursues the return of his heirloom, and in his own effete manner, echoes the subject of another cursed painting he once compared to his own -- that of the dark-souled Dorian Gray.
Some of Smith's observations of art and artists were staggeringly powerful and passionate. When he is describing how the skillful forger (a young Australian - Ellie Shipley) painstakingly studies the painting for days, each stroke, each layer of color, the canvas and lacquer, the dust and mold of centuries -- but even the most talented forger can't paint the soul of the artist that makes it onto the canvas: “Only the real artist has the false beginning.” It is magic you feel when the two paintings (real and faked) meet and a heartbreaking fact is revealed about the authentic masterpiece. The characters are distinct and dimensional. Marty, as boorish as he needs to be, eventually redeems himself; Ellie evolves through the deceit that has haunted her for most of her life; and the tragedy of de Vors' life that has been swathed in a cloud of mystery for centuries, reveals a new legacy.
Comparable to The Goldfinch, The Girl with a Pearl Earring. Highly recommend.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
42 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- KarKinz
- 05-13-16
This Story Definitely NOT a Forgery!
If you could sum up The Last Painting of Sara de Vos in three words, what would they be?
There have been a rash of 'forged painting stories' on the bookshelves in the last few years. All had a similar 'feel' to them, and as a painter myself, perhaps I bring a different 'ear' to the stories, than a non-painter listener. I found myself just not intrigued quite enough to excite me and in the end, they all lacked the 5-star spark.'The Last Painting of Sara de Vos', however, had my attention immediately. The description of the painting itself, the fullness of the main characters - all worked together to create a mood and 'palette' which was quite complex . . . and spoke to me as an artist. It 'rang true'. And I appreciated the smattering of Dutch history - revolving around the period in which the Dutch greats painted. I recommend this book highly, to artists and non-artists, alike.
What did you like best about this story?
The mood - all parts working together to the same aim. Each part, the works of art themselves, the characters, the plot - all seemed to take the stage to create a wonderful novel.
Have you listened to any of Edoardo Ballerini’s other performances before? How does this one compare?
Edoardo Ballerini did a stellar job with this one. I believe I have heard him before - 'Beautiful Ruins', perhaps.
Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?
Extreme Interest? Does that count as an extreme reaction? :)
Any additional comments?
I don't know what I'd do without 'my' Audible. It takes one out of their own life and its troubles - and when I put down my iPod - I find myself able to address my own world anew. In this overly self-absorbed world, it is nice to have a respite to turn to. Thank you, Audible!
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
35 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Chris Gillette
- 05-25-16
Found my Prince
As an avid reader and Audible listener, I feel like I have to"kiss a lot of frogs" before I find that special one... I couldn't quit listening to this book! It's been some time since I've been this impressed. The story was captivating and the writing exceptional. I can't wait to tell my friends about it.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
23 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Bonny
- 04-27-16
Brilliant book read by the perfect narrator
I don't search out books about art or lost paintings; I rarely read historical fiction, and books that jump back and forth in time often leave me wishing for some nice linear storytelling, but The Last Painting of Sara de Vos surprised and enthralled me. Dominic Smith has combined three original story lines set in 17th-century Holland, New York in the 1950s, and Sydney in 2000, all revolving around At the Edge of a Wood, a fictional painting by Sara de Vos. Smith opens the book with a vividly beautiful description of the painting to set the stage.
"A winter scene at twilight. The girl stands in the foreground against a silver birch, a pale hand pressed to its bark, staring out at the skaters on the frozen river. There are half a dozen of them, bundled against the cold, flecks of brown and yellow cloth floating above the ice. A brindled dog trots beside a boy as he arcs into a wide turn. One mitten in the air, he’s beckoning to the girl, to us. Up along the riverbank, a village is drowsy with smoke and firelight, flush against the bell of the pewter sky. A single cataract of daylight at the horizon, a meadow dazzled beneath a rent in the clouds, then the revelation of her bare feet in the snow. A raven – quilled in violet and faintly iridescent – caws from a branch beside her. In one hand she holds a frayed black ribbon, twined between slender fingers, and the hem of her dress, visible beneath a long gray shawl, is torn. The girl’s face is mostly in profile, her dark hair loose and tangled about her shoulders. Her eyes are fixed on some distant point – but is it dread or the strange halo of winter twilight that pins her in place? She seems unable, or unwilling, to reach the frozen riverbank. Her footprints lead back through the snow, toward the wood, beyond the frame. Somehow, she’s walked into this scene from outside the painting, trudged onto the canvas from our world, not hers."
The author provides the reader with wonderful details about life in 1637, painting, and the Guild of St. Luke in Holland when telling Sara de Vos' story, and we learn elucidating details about how art forgers carry out their work during Eleanor Shipley's chapters. These storylines come together perfectly with that of the painting's owner, Marty de Groot. The Last Painting of Sara de Vos changed these three lives over centuries, and I'm fairly sure that the story of how it did this may be one of the best I read this year. Edoardo Ballerini is the perfect narrator for this book, enhancing, but never intruding upon this intriguing story.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
20 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Trustme
- 05-15-16
Interesting, a bit contrived. Poor narration
For the most part, I enjoyed the story, especially the insights into 17th century Dutch painting & culture, the machinations of the art world & dealers, restoration & forgery. I found the characters engaging, though some were stereotypes, albeit pretty well rendered. The plot line was inventive, jumping back & forth in time, alternating between the experiences of the characters. IMO, the author's intention was to build in some additional suspense that wouldn't have been there in a linear timeline, and more importantly, to create fugue-like counterpoint between the characters lives both present and past that triggers reflection in the reader's mind. At times this felt too contrived. I could see the plot wheels turning to create a specific outcome & some coincidences passed the boundary of acceptable suspension of disbelief. Not a deal breaker, but it sometimes put me into a book critic analytical mode that undercut simple enjoyment of the story.
I found Mr Ballerini's narration distracting to the point of seriously undercutting my enjoyment of the book. While his rendition of character voices in dialogue was good (which is why I gave it more than 1 star), the lilting, breathless narrative persona he often used for the frequent & sometimes lengthy descriptive passages reminded me of an undergraduate reading Robert Frost with an over the top reverential syrupyness that screamed, "this is really art!" at the expense of the true sense of the passage. Too stagey & melodramatic. The story's narrator's POV is omniscient & anonymous, but the same ethereal affectations are used in the descriptive passages for the experiences of all the main characters. A more understated approach that let the words create atmosphere & drama without telegraphing portentous meaning through over acting would have yielded better results.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
15 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Bonny
- 05-14-16
Stunning book!
What a gorgeous book! Beautifully written, fascinating story lines, and decent narration. The book follows three characters: the sixteenth-century artist Sara De Vos, the owner of one of her paintings in 1958 Manhattan, and the art restorer & historian Eleanor Shipley in 1958 & in Australia in the year 2000. As we divide our time between these time periods, we gain a deep sense of the painter and the history behind the painting, the painting's effect on its current owner, Marty, in 1958, and on Eleanor over the course of decades. It's a testament to Dominic Smith's writing that I was equally absorbed by all three characters and story lines, and that I feel that the painting has had a profound effect on me, despite never having seen it. It's a complex and deep story, and it's perfectly done.
My only quibble is with the narration. It took me a long time to get used to Edoardo Ballerini's cadence. I found it sing-songy, repeating the same inflections over and over . . . the narration did not really flow. He has a way of striking the first consonant and emphasizing the first syllable of words that results in his sounding almost petulant and bored. I do like the way he voices the characters, not trying too hard for differentiation, just reading them with a light touch, and he uses a good pace.
It's not an extreme problem, though, and, in my opinion, not a reason to avoid the audiobook. I'm glad I listened to this rather than read it; it increases the intimacy and connection with the characters.
I'm definitely going to look for more by Dominic Smith! Highly recommended.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
13 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Sparkly
- 04-18-16
Profoundly Satisfying
I will read anything about forgeries, so I eagerly downloaded. I found this to be a very satisfying experience, both story and performance. The characters are drawn with detail and particularity. No one is perfect, but everyone is complex and felt true. There may be some implausibilities in the story, especially in the ability of a forgery to go undetected, but I overlooked them with ease. I really enjoyed the imaginings of the artist's life in 17th century Netherlands. And applause to the author for writing a marvelously, believably awkward sexual scene. I will check out Smith's other books.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
12 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- JillHen
- 06-20-16
Hard to get into.
So why did I give it such a high rating?
The novel is excellent.
I didn't quite discover that until I actually read it though.
Listening to this one is a bit of a slog. My mind wandered constantly and I missed many of the subtle points which make this story exceptional. I put it aside several times, actually, thinking I'd return it.
This is a story with a lot of nuance that builds to a quiet explosion at the end. Quite poignant. But it took me several re-listens and ultimately a reading to get there. So I can't recommend the audio format.
Edoardo Ballerini's narration doesn't really do it for me. I've listened to him countless times and appreciate his skill, but the quality of his voice just doesn't please me. I'm sorry Edoardo-- I'm sure you're a likable fellow!
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
11 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- ibillinsly@gmail
- 01-02-19
4.24 stars
Stories about art forgeries and stolen paintings make some of the best novels. These types of novels could be classified as a sub-genre of fiction. Any time I read or listen to a novel about stolen art I’m reminded of Donna Tartt’s The Goldfinch. While The Last Painting of Sara De Vos isn’t that caliber of an audiobook (very few, if any, are), it’s still quite good. The narrator of this audiobook is one of the best.
Overall rating: 4.24 stars
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
10 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- forever listening
- 05-25-16
Beautifully Written!
I LOVED THIS!!! Alternating between 3 eras propelled the plot and gave relief to the pervading melancholy as it occurred. Although some of the character's actions are cringe worthy and regrettable, Dominic's overall characterizations make them wholly sympathetic. My only criticism is that it felt sad to me throughout though it wasn't really a sad tale. Perhaps that was because the 2 main characters of the modern tale were weighed down for a lifetime with regret. Ah, but it doesn't end there. I can't think of a more imaginative and satisfying ending. And the writing is simply beautiful to listen to….poetic prose.
…and …for the life of me I can't figure out the bad reviews given to the narrator. I was a theater major in my young life and there's nothing about his performance that takes away from the written word.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
10 people found this helpful
People who viewed this also viewed...
-
Return to Valetto
- A Novel
- By: Dominic Smith
- Narrated by: Edoardo Ballerini
- Length: 9 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
On a hilltop in Umbria sits Valetto. Once a thriving village—and a hub of resistance and refuge during World War II—centuries of earthquakes, landslides, and the lure of a better life have left it neglected. Only ten residents remain, including the widows Serafino—three eccentric sisters and their steely centenarian mother—who live quietly in their medieval villa. Then their nephew and grandson, Hugh, a historian, returns. But someone else has arrived before him, laying claim to the cottage where Hugh spent his childhood summers.
By: Dominic Smith
-
The Art Forger
- By: B. A. Shapiro
- Narrated by: Xe Sands
- Length: 10 hrs
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Making a living reproducing famous artworks for a popular online retailer and desperate to improve her situation, Claire is lured into a Faustian bargain with Aiden Markel, a powerful gallery owner. She agrees to forge a painting - a Degas masterpiece stolen from the Gardner Museum - in exchange for a one-woman show in his renowned gallery. But when that very same long-missing Degas painting is delivered to Claire's studio, she begins to suspect that it may itself be a forgery. Her desperate search for the truth leads Claire into a labyrinth of deceit where secrets hidden since the late 19th century may be the only evidence that can now save her life.
-
-
The Art Forger
- By Cynthia on 01-02-13
By: B. A. Shapiro
-
The Electric Hotel
- A Novel
- By: Dominic Smith
- Narrated by: Edoardo Ballerini
- Length: 11 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Dominic Smith’s The Electric Hotel winds through the nascent days of cinema in Paris and Fort Lee, New Jersey - America’s first movie town - and on the battlefields of Belgium during World War I. A sweeping work of historical fiction, it shimmers between past and present as it tells the story of the rise and fall of a prodigious film studio and one man’s doomed obsession with all that passes in front of the viewfinder.
-
-
Historical fiction at its best
- By Steve on 11-22-20
By: Dominic Smith
-
The Mercury Visions of Louis Daguerre
- By: Dominic Smith
- Narrated by: Stephen Hoye
- Length: 10 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In this luminous novel, Dominic Smith reinvents the life of one of photography's founding fathers. In 1839, Louis Daguerre's invention took the world by storm. A decade later, he is sinking deep into delusions brought on by exposure to mercury, the very agent that allowed his daguerreotype process. Believing the world will end within one year, he creates his "Doomsday List", 10 items he must photograph before the final day. It includes a woman he has always loved but has not seen in half a century.
-
-
Dud
- By Deborah on 01-31-08
By: Dominic Smith
-
Bright and Distant Shores
- By: Dominic Smith
- Narrated by: Greg Lockett
- Length: 15 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the waning years of the 19th century there was a hunger for tribal artifacts, spawning collecting voyages from museums and collectors around the globe. In 1897, one such collector, a Chicago insurance magnate, sponsors an expedition into the South Seas to commemorate the completion of his company's new skyscraper - the world's tallest building. The ship is to bring back an array of Melanesian weaponry and handicrafts, but also several natives related by blood....
By: Dominic Smith
-
The Beautiful Miscellaneous
- By: Dominic Smith
- Narrated by: Richard Powers
- Length: 9 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Nathan Nelson is just above average in everything he does. However, his father, a renowned physicist, pursuing his quest to uncover his son's latent gifts, sends Nathan to whiz-kid summer camps. By the time Nathan is 17, hopes for a late-blooming prodigy seem dashed. But then a tragic accident and ensuing coma leave Nathan with an altered mind that allows him to memorize vast amounts of information.
-
-
Ugh... goes nowhere... terribly boring
- By anthony on 08-10-16
By: Dominic Smith
-
Return to Valetto
- A Novel
- By: Dominic Smith
- Narrated by: Edoardo Ballerini
- Length: 9 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
On a hilltop in Umbria sits Valetto. Once a thriving village—and a hub of resistance and refuge during World War II—centuries of earthquakes, landslides, and the lure of a better life have left it neglected. Only ten residents remain, including the widows Serafino—three eccentric sisters and their steely centenarian mother—who live quietly in their medieval villa. Then their nephew and grandson, Hugh, a historian, returns. But someone else has arrived before him, laying claim to the cottage where Hugh spent his childhood summers.
By: Dominic Smith
-
The Art Forger
- By: B. A. Shapiro
- Narrated by: Xe Sands
- Length: 10 hrs
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Making a living reproducing famous artworks for a popular online retailer and desperate to improve her situation, Claire is lured into a Faustian bargain with Aiden Markel, a powerful gallery owner. She agrees to forge a painting - a Degas masterpiece stolen from the Gardner Museum - in exchange for a one-woman show in his renowned gallery. But when that very same long-missing Degas painting is delivered to Claire's studio, she begins to suspect that it may itself be a forgery. Her desperate search for the truth leads Claire into a labyrinth of deceit where secrets hidden since the late 19th century may be the only evidence that can now save her life.
-
-
The Art Forger
- By Cynthia on 01-02-13
By: B. A. Shapiro
-
The Electric Hotel
- A Novel
- By: Dominic Smith
- Narrated by: Edoardo Ballerini
- Length: 11 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Dominic Smith’s The Electric Hotel winds through the nascent days of cinema in Paris and Fort Lee, New Jersey - America’s first movie town - and on the battlefields of Belgium during World War I. A sweeping work of historical fiction, it shimmers between past and present as it tells the story of the rise and fall of a prodigious film studio and one man’s doomed obsession with all that passes in front of the viewfinder.
-
-
Historical fiction at its best
- By Steve on 11-22-20
By: Dominic Smith
-
The Mercury Visions of Louis Daguerre
- By: Dominic Smith
- Narrated by: Stephen Hoye
- Length: 10 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In this luminous novel, Dominic Smith reinvents the life of one of photography's founding fathers. In 1839, Louis Daguerre's invention took the world by storm. A decade later, he is sinking deep into delusions brought on by exposure to mercury, the very agent that allowed his daguerreotype process. Believing the world will end within one year, he creates his "Doomsday List", 10 items he must photograph before the final day. It includes a woman he has always loved but has not seen in half a century.
-
-
Dud
- By Deborah on 01-31-08
By: Dominic Smith
-
Bright and Distant Shores
- By: Dominic Smith
- Narrated by: Greg Lockett
- Length: 15 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the waning years of the 19th century there was a hunger for tribal artifacts, spawning collecting voyages from museums and collectors around the globe. In 1897, one such collector, a Chicago insurance magnate, sponsors an expedition into the South Seas to commemorate the completion of his company's new skyscraper - the world's tallest building. The ship is to bring back an array of Melanesian weaponry and handicrafts, but also several natives related by blood....
By: Dominic Smith
-
The Beautiful Miscellaneous
- By: Dominic Smith
- Narrated by: Richard Powers
- Length: 9 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Nathan Nelson is just above average in everything he does. However, his father, a renowned physicist, pursuing his quest to uncover his son's latent gifts, sends Nathan to whiz-kid summer camps. By the time Nathan is 17, hopes for a late-blooming prodigy seem dashed. But then a tragic accident and ensuing coma leave Nathan with an altered mind that allows him to memorize vast amounts of information.
-
-
Ugh... goes nowhere... terribly boring
- By anthony on 08-10-16
By: Dominic Smith
Related to this topic
-
The Mercury Visions of Louis Daguerre
- By: Dominic Smith
- Narrated by: Stephen Hoye
- Length: 10 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In this luminous novel, Dominic Smith reinvents the life of one of photography's founding fathers. In 1839, Louis Daguerre's invention took the world by storm. A decade later, he is sinking deep into delusions brought on by exposure to mercury, the very agent that allowed his daguerreotype process. Believing the world will end within one year, he creates his "Doomsday List", 10 items he must photograph before the final day. It includes a woman he has always loved but has not seen in half a century.
-
-
Dud
- By Deborah on 01-31-08
By: Dominic Smith
-
Charleston
- By: Margaret Bradham Thornton
- Narrated by: Susan Bennett
- Length: 9 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When Eliza Poinsett left the elegant world of Charleston for college, she never expected it would take her ten years to return. Now almost a decade later, she is an art historian in London with a charming Etonian boyfriend who adores her. But the past catches up with her when she runs into Henry, her childhood love, at a wedding in the English countryside.
-
-
I loved this book.
- By Mary on 12-21-18
-
The Lost Carousel of Provence
- By: Juliet Blackwell
- Narrated by: Xe Sands
- Length: 10 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Long, lonely years have passed for the crumbling Château Clement, nestled well beyond the rolling lavender fields and popular tourist attractions of Provence. Once a bustling and dignified ancestral estate, now all that remains is the château's gruff, elderly owner and the softly whispered secrets of generations buried and forgotten. But time has a way of exposing history's dark stains, and when American photographer Cady Drake finds herself drawn to the château and its antique carousel, she longs to explore the relic's shadowy origins.
-
-
Loved It!
- By T Heskett on 09-23-18
By: Juliet Blackwell
-
They Left Us Everything
- A Memoir
- By: Plum Johnson
- Narrated by: Pilar Witherspoon
- Length: 8 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
After almost 20 years of caring for elderly parents - first for their senile father and then for their cantankerous 93-year-old mother - author Plum Johnson and her three younger brothers have finally fallen to their middle-aged knees with conflicted feelings of grief and relief. Now they must empty and sell the beloved family home, 23 rooms bulging with history, antiques, and oxygen tanks. Plum thought, How tough will that be? I know how to buy garbage bags. But the task turns out to be much harder and more rewarding than she ever imagined.
-
-
Thought provoking
- By Margaret on 05-02-17
By: Plum Johnson
-
A Long, Long Time Ago and Essentially True
- By: Brigid Pasulka
- Narrated by: Cassandra Campbell
- Length: 14 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The novel opens on the eve of World War II. In the mountain village of Half-Village, a young man nicknamed the Pigeon, under the approving eyes of the entire village, courts the beautiful Anielica Hetmanska. But the war's arrival wreaks havoc in all their lives and delays their marriage for six long years.
-
-
The Old & New Worlds Converge & Transcend Time
- By Sara on 11-22-16
By: Brigid Pasulka
-
Light Years
- By: James Salter
- Narrated by: Mark Boyett
- Length: 10 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance