In the Full Light of the Sun follows the fortunes of three Berliners caught up in a devastating scandal of 1930s’ Germany. It tells the story of Emmeline, a wayward, young art student; Julius, an anxious, middle-aged art expert; and a mysterious art dealer named Rachmann who are at the heart of Weimar Berlin at its hedonistic, politically turbulent apogee and are whipped up into excitement over the surprising discovery of thirty-two previously unknown paintings by Vincent van Gogh.
Based on a true story, unfolding through the subsequent rise of Hitler and the Nazis, this gripping tale is about beauty and justice, and the truth that may be found when our most treasured beliefs are revealed as illusions.
Brilliant on authenticity, vanity and self-delusion, it is a novel for our times.
Based on a true story, unfolding through the subsequent rise of Hitler and the Nazis, this gripping tale is about beauty and justice, and the truth that may be found when our most treasured beliefs are revealed as illusions.
Brilliant on authenticity, vanity and self-delusion, it is a novel for our times.
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Reviews
With great skill and sympathy, Clark evokes a febrile society in which politics, love and art offer no certainties, and the ground always threatens to open beneath her characters' feet
In her gripping new novel Clare Clark paints a picture of Weimar Berlinin which surface glitter hides sinister and bitter truths. Page by page she brings secret lives into the light; nothing: not love, not art, not politics, is what it seems, and few escape the brutal forces that emerge
A Vanity Fair of delusion, greed and much suffering, it is brilliantly evoked, sophisticated and beautifully written
Clark excels . . . a gripping and ultimately moving story about art, artifice and authenticity
A fascinating tale . . . Clark's historical worlds are meticulously researched
An irresistible story . . . as compelling as it is expansive
Clare Clark casts her spell of time and place with casual elegance and no apparent tricks - yet caught me up in this juicy story of colossal art fraud, the passions and intrigues of her vivid and moving characters - and the truly terrifying rise of the Nazi party, with all its contemporary echoes. The atmosphere of this book lingers on
A completely fascinating novel about the early 20th century art world and its many dubious machinations. Expertly researched, compellingly narrated and full of potent resonance today
An engrossing read
A wonderful novel: passionate, intelligent, humane, it held me from the first page to the last. Van Gogh's fleeting genius - achingly out of reach, the pull so strong - is wonderfully evoked; and the house of cards that was the Weimar Republic provides the perfectly rendered backdrop for a story about our willingness to deceive in the pursuit of beauty
I loved In the Full Light Of The Sun, a novel about deception, self-deception, truth, love and lies that will enthral anyone fascinated by Van Gogh, the art world and Berlin in the 1920s. Written with verve and assurance it is both engaging and humane