A tale of art beauty lust greed deception and retribution set in arefined society ablaze with tulip fever.In 1630s Amsterdam tulipomania has seized the populac... » 

A tale of art beauty lust greed deception and retribution set in arefined society ablaze with tulip fever.In 1630s Amsterdam tulipomania has seized the populace. Everywhere men areseduced by the fantastic exotic flower. But for wealthy merchant CornelisSandvoort it is his young and beautiful wife Sophia who stirs his soul. Sheis the prize he desires the woman he hopes will bring him the joy that noteven his considerable fortune can buy.Cornelis yearns for an heir but so far he and Sophia have failed to produceone. In a bid for immortality he commissions a portrait of them both by thetalented young painter Jan van Loos. But as Van Loos begins to capture Sophiaslikeness on canvas a slow passion begins to burn between the beautiful youngwife and the talented artist.As the portrait unfolds so a slow dance is begun among the householdsinhabitants. Ambitions desires and dreams breed a grand deception and asthe lies multiply events move toward a thrilling and tragic climax.In this richly imagined international bestseller Deborah Moggach has createdthe rarest of novels a lush lyrical work of fiction that is alsocompulsively readable. Seldom has a novel so vividly evoked a time a placeand a passion. «