"This book is an original, cogent account of the singular Florentine painter Piero di Cosimo (1462-1522), providing a concise survey of his life within his social, cultural and literary backdrop. Delving into the artist’s deliberately idiosyncratic life, the book shows how Piero chose to live in squalor, and eat nothing but boiled eggs, which (according to Vasari’s famous Lives of the Artists) he cooked fifty at a time in his painting glue. This book shows how the artist became the favourite of sophisticated patrons, who were eager to decorate their residences with pagan Greco-Roman mythological subjects. Piero’s vividly imagined portrayals led to his cornering the market on these commissions. At the same time his more orthodox, but never ordinary, religious altarpieces and private devotional paintings also won the admiration of leading Florentine families."

A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER 'Powerful and provocative' Paula McLain 'Beautiful, engrossing, heart-breaking' Rachel Rhys 'Monumental in a way that few novels dare attempt' Washington Post The Miltons are a powerful old New York family - the kind of family that used to run the world. And in 1935, they still do. Kitty and Ogden Milton seem to have it all: an elegant apartment on the Upper East Side, two beautiful little boys, a love everyone envies. When a tragedy befalls them, Ogden comforts Kitty the only way he knows how - they go sailing, picnic on a small island off the coast of Maine, and buy it. For generations the Miltons of Crockett Island revel in a place that is entirely their own. But it's 1959, and the world is changing: Ogden's firm hire a Jewish man, Len Levy, who earns the admiration of not only his boss, but his boss's beautiful young daughter. When Len and his friend visit the island, the Milton's principles and prejudices are challenged like never before. At the dawn of the 21st century, the family money has run dry, and the island is up for sale. Returning for one last visit, Kitty's granddaughter uncovers disturbing evidence about her family's wealth - and realizes she is on the verge of finally understanding the silences that seemed to hover just below the surface of her family all her life. 'Thought-provoking and propulsive...Welcome to old money, new heartbreak and big secrets' New York Times Book Review

Lost in the woods with a horse, a mouse, and the ghost of a dead bird, you will discover if you're meant to live. In Sarah Blake's epic poem of survival, we follow a nameless main character lost in the woods. There, they discover the world anew, negotiating their place among the trees and the rain and the animals. Something brought them to the woods that nearly killed them, and they're not sure they want to live through this experience either. But the world surprises them again and again with beauty and intrigue. They come to meet a pregnant horse, a curious mouse, and a dead bird, who is set on haunting them all. Blake examines what makes us human when removed from the human world, what identity means where it is a useless thing, and how loss shapes us. In a stunning setting and with ominous dreams, In Springtime will take you into a magical world without using any magic at all—just the strangeness of the woods. 7. If only the night held one dream instead of many. In the next dream you dig up the bird. In the next dream you dig in the same place and find a gun. You've shot someone. You weren't supposed to return to this place where you hid the gun. You're an idiot in your dream. In the next dream the horse returns. The horse startles you awake. But you are still asleep. Dreams are some wicked things. In the next dream you are in a desert. That's different. You forget what grass is. What it smells like. What the shadows of trees look like across your legs. You laugh your head off at the sight of a cactus. In the next dream you can see the spirit of the bird that will haunt you for weeks. Her tongue makes you think all of her words will come out garbled. Then you remember all she does is sing.

The Sunday Times bestseller The Postmistress by Sarah Blake is a heart-rending and profoundly moving story of love and loss in World War II. It is 1940, and bombs fall nightly on London. In the thick of the chaos is young American radio reporter Frankie Bard. She huddles close to terrified strangers in underground shelters, and later broadcasts stories about survivors in rubble-strewn streets. But for her listeners, the war is far from home. Listening to Frankie are Iris James, a Cape Cod postmistress, and Emma Fitch, a doctor's wife. Iris hears the winds stirring and knows that soon the letters she delivers will bear messages of hope or tragedy. Emma is desperate for news of London, where her husband is working - she counts the days until his return. But one night in London the fates of all three women entwine when Frankie finds a letter - a letter she vows to deliver . . . The Postmistress is an unforgettable story of three women: their loves, their partings and the secrets they must bear, or bury . . . 'A beautifully written, though-provoking novel that I'm telling everyone to read' Kathryn Stockett, author of The Help 'A brilliant story, beautifully crafted, that touches the heart and captures the imagination' Sunday Express 'Unforgettable, heart-wrenching, captivating. A profoundly moving story of love, loss and life in war time' Sunday Independent 'Heartbreaking' Daily Express 'A World War Two blockbuster with echoes of Atonement' Red 'A moving tale that will stay with you long after the final page' Good Housekeeping Sarah Blake lives in Washington, D.C., with her husband, the poet Josh Weiner, and their two sons.