The Seeker of Lost Paintings (Sarah Freethy)

The publisher’s presentation

Rome 1939
Arriving in Rome to work for the wealthy Montefalco family, Maddalena is homesick and alone. She finds solace – and love – in the beauty of the city, but as the war in Nazi-occupied Italy rages, she must make a devastating choice.

London, 1997
After her mother Maddalena’s death, Beatrice Fremont discovers a fragment of a painting and a letter that sends her on a hunt to Rome. Helping her is art dealer Jude Adler, who’s convinced they are looking for a lost Caravaggio. For Jude, this could be the find of a lifetime; but for Beatrice their search uncovers a shocking secret and the answer to a mystery kept hidden for years.

My reading review

I really enjoyed this beautifully written book.

As Beatrice and Jude look for the past of Maddalena following her death, in search of a painting, we switch between the two periods of the story. In the present, Beatrice has to come to terms with her mum’s passing and Jude takes on the challenge to help her with the painting, overcoming the professional turmoil a previous painting put him in. In the past, we uncover the way Magdalena and her husband met during WWII Italy and how the painting came to England with them.

The switch between the two periods is well done and the plot is interesting. I loved the characters and thought they all had depth and presence. I was not familiar with the WWII events inside Italy and I thought the author brought this into the plot in a vivid way, which made me curious to find out a bit more. The author’s notes were interesting and useful in this respect and I appreciated the research that went into the daily life of families and of women like Maddalena during this period, including the ingredients they found and the dishes they made. You may like to read Sarah Freethy’s article specifically on this topic. She also devoted an article to Syndrome K, a fictitious disease that protected many from the nazis, a true story she uses as background in her book.

I read the first half very quickly, as I could not stop myself, and then I slowed down, as I did not want to leave the story. It was one of my favourites this year. I have now Sarah Freethy’s first book and looking forward to reading it too. Now i also am a follower of Sarah on her author’s Facebook page, as she shares a lot there about her research and the background of her books.

I am grateful to NetGalley and Simon and Schuster UK for the opportunity to read and review this book. All opinions are my own.