The Gravity of Birds: A Novel

About this book

In this compelling debut novel an art authenticator and an art historian are employed by a famous reclusive painter to sell a never-before-seen portrait leading them to discover devastating secrets two sisters have kept from each other and from the artist who determined the course of their lives. How do you find someone who wants to be lost? Sisters Natalie and Alice Kessler were close until adolescence wrenched them apart. Natalie is headstrong manipulativeand beautiful; Alice is a dreamer who loves books and birds. During their familys summer holiday at the lake Alice falls under the thrall of a struggling young painter Thomas Bayber in whom she finds a kindred spirit. Natalie however remains strangely unmoved sitting for a family portrait with surprising indifference. But by the end of the summer three lives are shattered. Decades later Bayber now a reclusive world-renowned artist unveils a never-before-seen work Kessler Sistersa provocative painting depicting the young Thomas Natalie and Alice. Bayber asks Dennis Finch an art history professor and Stephen Jameson an eccentric young art authenticator to sell the painting for him. That task becomes more complicated when the artist requires that they first locate Natalie and Alice who seem to have vanished. And Finch finds himself wondering why Thomas is suddenly so intent on resurrecting the past. In The Gravity of Birds histories and memories refuse to stay buried; in the end only the excavation of the past will enable its survivors to love again.