Girl Reading - by Katie Ward (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

This stunningly original, kaleidoscopic novel is an inspired celebration of women reading and the artists who have caught them in the act--"a vivid portrait of a timeless subject" (Minneapolis Star Tribune).

A young orphan poses for a Renaissance maestro in medieval Siena. A servant girl in seventeenth-century Amsterdam snatches a moment away from her work to lose herself in tales of knights and battles. An eighteenth-century female painter completes a portrait of a deceased poetess for her lover. A Victorian medium poses with a book in one of the first photographic studios. A girl suffering her first heartbreak witnesses intellectual and sexual awakening during the Great War. A young woman reading in a bar catches the eye of a young man who takes her picture. And in the not-so-distant future a woman navigates a cyber-reality that has radically altered the way people experience art and life.

Each chapter of Katie Ward's novel immerses readers into the intimate tales behind the creation of seven portraits by artists, ranging from Simone Martini to Pieter Janssens Elinga to a Flickr photographer. In gorgeous prose, Ward explores our points of connection, our relationship to art, the history of women, and the importance of reading. Dazzlingly inventive, this is "a fascinating testament to the universal themes of art and literature and the spirit of femininity" (BookPage).

Review Quotes

"A real wow of a first novel...incredibly clever." -"The Times "(London)

"Ambitious in range and technically impressive...["Girl Reading] "is undoubtedly the work of a writer to watch." --"Kirkus"

"Girl Reading is a debut of rare individuality and distinction. Katie Ward inhabits each of her seven scenes, her seven eras, with a fluent and intuitive touch, and sentence by sentence, deft and mercurial, she surpasses the readers' expectations. What is set down on the page has a rich and allusive hinterland, so that the reader's imagination has a space to work, and what is unsaid has its own fascination. The writing is full of light and shadow, alive with fresh and startling perceptions." -Hilary Mantel, author of the Man Booker Prize winning "Wolf Hall"

Book of the Week: "Katie Ward's assured debut is inspired by that mysterious and provocative subject of a thousand visual images: a woman reading . . . In each chapter Ward twists a story around real works of art. Her seven unpredictable tales serve up a lively, irreverent and even feminist journey through history.

--"Time Out "(London)

Book of the Week: "This isn't a novel - it's a time machine! Well, nearly. As each chapter transports you to a completely different century, you'll find yourself wondering if Ward has her very own Tardis ... I guarantee the stories will relate to your own life in some way - if you're planning to pack any holiday books this year, make sure "Girl Reading" is one of them."""--"Cosmopolitan "(UK)