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The afterlife of a painting: Molly & the Captain, by Anthony Quinn, reviewed

A portrait of his daughters by the 18th-century artist William Merrymount links two engaging family sagas set in the following centuries

12 November 2022

9:00 AM

12 November 2022

9:00 AM

Molly & the Captain Anthony Quinn

Little Brown, pp.413, £16.99

Novels about art are often strange, vain affairs. After all, writing about artists, especially fictional ones, can seem like a strained exercise in trying to yoke together two irreconcilable mediums. It is to Anthony Quinn’s credit that his ninth novel, Molly & the Captain, not only succeeds admirably as a centuries-spanning account of the influence and afterlife of the eponymous painting, but manages to say illuminating things about creativity, love and family dynamics in the process.

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