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The Last Painting of Sara de Vos

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The Last Painting of Sara de Vos

By: Dominic Smith
Narrated by: Edoardo Ballerini
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About this listen

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 story's told.

In this extraordinary audiobook, The Last Painting of Sara de Vos, Australian writer Dominic Smith brilliantly 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 Australian art historian who painted a forgery of it in her youth.

In 1631, Sara de Vos is admitted to the Guild of St. Luke in Holland as a master painter, the first woman to be so honoured. 300 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 Manhattan 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 exhibition of female Dutch painters, and both versions threaten to arrive.

As the three threads intersect with increasing and exquisite suspense, The Last Painting of Sara de Vos mesmerises while it grapples with the demands of the artistic life, showing how the deceits of the past can forge the present.

©2016 Dominic Smith (P)2016 Macmillan Audio USA
Fiction Historical Fiction Literary Fiction World Literature New York

What listeners say about The Last Painting of Sara de Vos

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Great read...

Lovely development of the story line, and beautifully crafted descriptions of the use of light in paintings. The only issue is the incredibly poor Australian accent used by the reader - closer to South African if anything - it rankled all the way through. If you can put that aside, a great listen...

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5 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Intriguing book

I enjoyed this book. Narrator was good (ie not irritating), but cannot do Australian accent at all! Despite this the book was still good to listen to.

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

The worst Australian accents ever

Story is great, performance terrible, accents were not realistic at all, more like South African

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Let down by narrator

Marvelous story spoiled by an inappropriate narrator. Accents and some pronunciations were irritating, but the strength of the story kept my will to keep going strong.

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Spellbound

The audible version allowed me to fully submerge into the story, Once the plot had been set and the characters established, I managed to find the time to rest and receive a very powerful novel.
I will wander around for the next few hours still living the tale.
It is a wonderful way to absorb a novel.

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Unfortunate reader

The story line is good but the reader lets it down. His Australian accent is a cross between New Zealand and South African. He should read without trying to do the accent. It distracts from the story.
Plus, He can't pronounce winding or rifling or Balmain.

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Reader

Good story but the attempt by the reader to use an Australian accent was not good at all. It was a combination of a South African and a New Zealand accent but not Australian - sadly was really hard on the ear

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Intriguing

Very interesting story and characters. Loved it. Narrator is good, but the Australian accent unconvincing-switches between South African, Australian and Kiwi.

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Great story poorly read

I wanted to finish the story but found my stomach sinking when I remembered that I'd have to listen to that sad, slightly whiney voice with the same emotional tone no matter what was going on or who was speaking in the novel. As an Australian, I found the weird accent spoken for one of the main characters disconcerting. It slipped from a kiwi accent to a Sth African accent and sometimes a British plum would appear. Never did Ellie sound like she came from Sydney.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Lovely story- mistaken accent.

Gentle story about youth art love regret. Just don't know how the reader mistakenly used a South African accent where it should have been Australian-- it irked every time.

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