The secret life of sunflowers

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. Johanna inherited Vincent van Gogh's paintings. They were all she had, and they weren't worth anything. She was a 28 year old widow with a baby in the 1800s, without any means of supporting herself, living in Paris where she barely spoke the language. Yet she managed to introduce Vincent's legacy to the world. The inspiration couldn't come at a better time for Emsley. With her business failing, an unexpected love turning up in her life, and family secrets unraveling, can she find answers in the past?

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Library	Shelf Location	Shelf Number	Material Type	Item Barcode	Status
Searching... Palmerston North Central Library	General Fiction-Fiction Zone	MOL	Book.	PN364650071241	Searching... Unknown

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Summary

"This book draws all the emotions out of you. I went from tears to snorting with laughter. It was both lighthearted and heart breaking, yet it inspires me to live my best life! " Michelle Cox

Johanna inherited Vincent van Gogh's paintings. They were all she had, and they weren't worth anything. She was a 28 year old widow with a baby in the 1800s, without any means of supporting herself, living in Paris where she barely spoke the language. Yet she managed to introduce Vincent's legacy to the world.

The inspiration couldn't come at a better time for Emsley. With her business failing, an unexpected love turning up in her life, and family secrets unraveling, can she find answers in the past?

"This book was so much more than I had expected, and I had high expectations... one of the most beautiful stories I've read in years." Kaela Stokes

"It touched something in my soul." Audrey McDonald

Genre:

Biographical fiction.

Historical fiction.

Reviews (1)

Kirkus Review

In this novel, two strong-willed women strive to build artistic, independent lives in different centuries. High-powered Los Angeles--based auctioneer Emsley Wilson has a lot on her plate. She spends her days arranging political auctions for celebrity donors, and after-hours, she has a complicated personal life to manage. Her ex-boyfriend and business partner, Trey, dumped Emsley for a close friend of hers who also works for their auction house. But Emsley always makes time for her grandmother Violet, a legendary New York City artist, gallery owner, and socialite recovering from a stroke in a rehabilitation facility. When Violet sells her Greenwich Village brownstone, Emsley's mother insists that she clean it out because "who knows what risqué pictures of Violet with her celebrity friends might be at the house." Violet then presses an ancient diary into Emsley's hands before she returns to the West Coast. On the plane, Emsley begins to read it and is instantly transported to 19th-century Amsterdam and the life of Johanna Bonger, van Gogh's sister-in-law. Like Emsley, Johanna wants to chart her own path as an independent woman. But according to Johanna's mother, "Women are like the canals, steady and calm, the supporters of life. Men are like barges traveling to the seaports, having adventures and collecting their treasures." Emsley barely has time to read the diary before she has to confront Trey's plot to dissolve their business, which transforms into a demand that she pay him $1 million within 30 days for his shares or walk away from everything she's built. As Emsley struggles to save her business, she is drawn into Johanna's family life and quest to establish van Gogh's artistic legacy. Fans of Maggie Shipstead's novel Great Circle will find much to love in Emsley's and Johanna's braided storylines, with romance, knowledgeable references to art history, and evocative descriptions of Amsterdam, New York, and Paris. Molnar's witty dialogue advances the plot briskly; in one fun exchange, Johanna's brother mocks Monet's move to Giverny, France, and claims that the artist's decision to paint waterlilies "will be the end of him in the profession." But the cleverly drawn supporting characters would be more robust if they had additional opportunities for action and reflection instead of banter. An engrossing, impeccably researched tale connecting passionate, creative women across time. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.