
The Last Painting of Sara de Vos
A Novel
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Narrated by:
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Edoardo Ballerini
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By:
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Dominic Smith
About this listen
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.
©2016 Dominic Smith (P)2016 Macmillan AudioListeners also enjoyed...
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On a dim winter afternoon, a young Irish immigrant opens the gas taps in his Brooklyn tenement. He is determined to prove - to the subway bosses who have recently fired him, to his badgering, pregnant wife - "that the hours of his life belong to himself alone". In the aftermath of the fire that follows, Sister St. Savior, an aging nun, appears unbidden to direct the way forward for his widow and his unborn child.
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Profoundly Thought Provoking
- By Sara on 01-17-18
By: Alice McDermott
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The Topeka School
- A Novel
- By: Ben Lerner
- Narrated by: Nancy Linari, Peter Berkrot, Tristan Wright
- Length: 10 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
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Adam Gordon is a senior at Topeka High School, class of ’97. His mother, Jane, is a famous feminist author; his father, Jonathan, is an expert at getting "lost boys" to open up. They both work at a psychiatric clinic that has attracted staff and patients from around the world. Adam is a renowned debater, expected to win a national championship before he heads to college. He is one of the cool kids, ready to fight or, better, freestyle about fighting if it keeps his peers from thinking of him as weak.
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Strong novel about 1990s
- By citizen, jazzmania on 01-11-20
By: Ben Lerner
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Two Roads Home
- Hitler, Stalin, and the Miraculous Survival of My Family
- By: Daniel Finkelstein
- Narrated by: Daniel Finkelstein
- Length: 11 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
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Beloved British journalist Daniel Finkelstein tells the extraordinary story of the years before his mother met his father—years of war and trials they barely survived. Daniel Finkelstein's grandfather was a German Jewish intellectual leader who tolled an early warning of the impending Holocaust and became an archivist of Nazi crimes. He relocated his family to safety in Amsterdam, where they knew Anne Frank. But in those years safety was an illusion: Anne Frank famously went into hiding and Daniel's mother, Mirjam, also still a child, was sent to Bergen-Belsen with her mother and sisters.
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Most engaging and important audiobook I ever listened to.
- By Kathleen M. Allen on 04-11-24
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The Garden of Lost Secrets
- By: Kelly Bowen
- Narrated by: Polly Lee, Marisa Calin, Matthew Wolf
- Length: 12 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
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1940 - Stasia always found comfort in the idyllic French countryside where she spent her childhood summers, roaming the gardens of an old chateau and finding inspiration for fairy tales full of bravery and adventure. But these days are much darker, and with Nazis storming across Europe, she soon finds herself one of the most hunted agents of the Resistance. The only safe haven she can think of is Chateau de Montissaire. But she’s about to discover that it just may be the center of her biggest mission yet.
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Leaned so much about resistance in Normandy
- By paula wright on 08-02-23
By: Kelly Bowen
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The Painted Girls
- A Novel
- By: Cathy Marie Buchanan
- Narrated by: Cassandra Campbell, Julia Whelan, Danny Cambell
- Length: 12 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
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Paris, 1878: Following the death of their father from overwork, the three van Goethem sisters find their lives upended. Without their father’s wages, and with what little their mother earns as a laundress disappearing down the absinthe bottle, eviction from their single boarding room seems imminent. With few options for work available for a girl, bookish 14-year-old Marie and her younger sister Charlotte are dispatched to the Paris Opera, where for a scant seven francs a week, the girls will be trained to enter its famous ballet. Their older sister, stubborn and insolent 17-year-old Antoinette, finds herself launched into the orbit of Émile Zola....
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Only a Pastel Version of the *Beautiful Era*
- By Mel on 02-03-13
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Eli's Promise
- A Novel
- By: Ronald H. Balson
- Narrated by: Fred Berman
- Length: 11 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
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Eli's Promise is a masterful work of historical fiction spanning three eras—Nazi-occupied Poland, the American Zone of post-war Germany, and Chicago at the height of the Vietnam War. Award-winning author Ronald H. Balson explores the human cost of war, the mixed blessings of survival, and the enduring strength of family bonds.
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Balson saves us from the full horror
- By Trudy Owens on 10-28-20
By: Ronald H. Balson
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Heads You Win
- By: Jeffrey Archer
- Narrated by: Richard Armitage
- Length: 15 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
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From an early age, it is clear that Alexander Karpenko is destined to lead his countrymen. But when his father is assassinated by the KGB for defying the state, Alexander and his mother will have to escape Russia if they hope to survive. At the docks, they have an irreversible choice: board a container ship bound for America or one bound for Great Britain. Alexander leaves the choice to a toss of a coin....
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The twists earn 5 stars
- By Wayne on 11-15-18
By: Jeffrey Archer
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Animal
- A Novel
- By: Lisa Taddeo
- Narrated by: Emma Roberts
- Length: 10 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
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Joan has spent a lifetime enduring the cruelties of men. But when one of them commits a shocking act of violence in front of her, she flees New York City in search of Alice, the only person alive who can help her make sense of her past. In the sweltering hills above Los Angeles, Joan unravels the horrific event she witnessed as a child - that has haunted her every waking moment - while forging the power to finally strike back.
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Should come with a lot of trigger warnings
- By Quinn on 07-13-21
By: Lisa Taddeo
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Bucky F*cking Dent
- A Novel
- By: David Duchovny
- Narrated by: David Duchovny
- Length: 6 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
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Ted Fullilove, aka Mr. Peanut, is not like other Ivy League grads. He shares an apartment with Goldberg, his beloved battery-operated fish, sleeps on a bed littered with yellow legal pads penned with what he hopes will be the next great American novel, and spends the waning malaise-filled days of the Carter administration at Yankee Stadium, waxing poetic while slinging peanuts to pay the rent.
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David Fucking Duchovny
- By Kelly W. on 05-04-16
By: David Duchovny
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The Haunting of Moscow House
- By: Olesya Salnikova Gilmore
- Narrated by: Olesya Salnikova Gilmore, Saskia Maarleveld
- Length: 12 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
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It is the summer of 1921, and a group of Bolsheviks have taken over Irina and Lili Goliteva’s ancestral home in Moscow, a stately mansion falling into disrepair and decay. The remaining members of their family are ordered to move into the cramped attic, while the officials take over an entire wing of grand rooms downstairs. The sisters understand it is the way of things and know they must forget their noble upbringing to make their way in this new Soviet Russia. But the house begins to whisper of a traumatic past not as dead as they thought.
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The Elegant Horror HF+F Gothic Tale You Need Right Now
- By Syd Young on 11-11-24
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Deadlands: Ghostwalkers
- By: Jonathan Maberry
- Narrated by: Ray Porter
- Length: 13 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
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In Ghostwalkers, a gun-for-hire, literally haunted by his bloody past, comes to the struggling town of Paradise Falls, where he becomes embroiled in a deadly conflict between the besieged community and a diabolically brilliant alchemist who is building terrible new weapons of mass destruction...and an army of the living dead!
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GOOD GRIEF (those who read the story will get it)
- By Wild Wise Woman on 10-02-15
By: Jonathan Maberry
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The Mercies
- By: Kiran Millwood Hargrave
- Narrated by: Jessie Buckley
- Length: 11 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
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Finnmark, Norway, 1617. Twenty-year-old Maren Magnusdatter stands on the craggy coast, watching the sea break into a sudden and reckless storm. Forty fishermen, including her brother and father, are drowned and left broken on the rocks below. With the menfolk wiped out, the women of the tiny Arctic town of Vardø must fend for themselves. Three years later, a stranger arrives on their shore. Absalom Cornet comes from Scotland, where he burned witches in the northern isles. He brings with him his young Norwegian wife, Ursa.
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The Mercies is a Strong and Moving Story, Not to be Missed
- By The Village Witch on 02-29-20
What listeners say about The Last Painting of Sara de Vos
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- anthony
- 05-18-16
One of the best books of the year
Great story, perfect narrator, beautifully written.
I replayed many passages just to hear the descriptions again.
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4 people found this helpful
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- Uriel Dana
- 07-25-23
Hypnotic Story, A must read for anyone who loves art.
A deep dive into, around, and about the past, present and future of a Dutch artist and one of her paintings from the 1600. It’s told through her eyes and those of a modern art forger and museum academic. You also experience it through the eyes of an art collector.
This book flies by quickly as you are pulled into the story like a lucid dream. Atmospheric, interesting, & insightful.
My only qualm is the readers “female Australian accent”was more distracting than helpful. (The story is so good you will overlook the readers portrayal).
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- Ignatius
- 07-17-16
Original story, whiney narration
Nice idea, well-executed. Fun to learn so much about the art world both today and centuries ago. Narrator's whiney and sing-songy delivery grated, but eventually I got used to it.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Ray Stewart
- 03-30-18
Not Your Typical Forgery Story
Very different from the usual story about the forgery or thief of a famous painting. The author's prose were beautiful and the narrator's voice on the audio edition was perfect. I enjoyed learning about this female Dutch painter from the 17th Century.
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- Anonymous User
- 02-28-24
intimate story. well developed characters the last painting
intricate story and timely travel to pertinent historical characters. Enjoyable read, an a nice travel into the past of Flemish art. Loved it
highly recommend
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- carol
- 10-17-16
Where am I now?
I found The Last Painting.... fascinating.
I learned a great deal about many aspects of the world of art, therefore gaining a deep appreciation for Dutch painters, the struggles of women painters, and countless other topics.
I did experience difficulty understanding the performer. His sounds of "sh", "ch", and "st", seemed too loud, while other words were too soft. Thus, I was constantly trying to go back and discover exactly what was said. I would have enjoyed the book much more, if I could have enjoyed the performance.
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- Andrew J Kenyon
- 10-28-18
cannot recommend enough
This is one of those books that leaves you longing for the characters after it's ended. Not my typical read (I can't even remember how I came across this title) but I'm so glad I did. I'm usually a junkie for investigative journalism or escapist fiction of the whodunnit variety - this book is neither, but damn it's wonderful. Hope you give it a listen.
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- Piglet Potters
- 11-19-24
Could listen to it again…
Wonderfully written. Draws you in to another time and to the art world. Beautiful and clever story. Well developed characters. I didn’t want it to end.
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- 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.
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23 people found this helpful
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- 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.
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15 people found this helpful