Set on the island of Saint Thomas in the early nineteenth century, this novel follows Rachel Pomie, a woman born into a strict Sephardic Jewish community. Bound by social conventions and an arranged marriage to a widower to save her father’s business, Rachel eventually creates a scandal by falling in love with her deceased husband’s nephew, Frédéric Pissarro. Their forbidden union and the legal battles that follow shape the childhood of their son, Jacobo Camille Pissarro, who later leaves the Caribbean for Paris to become a founder of Impressionism.
Readers of historical fiction and art history find here a detailed depiction of colonial island life and the cultural roots of a major artist. The narrative provides an account of how rigid religious traditions and familial expectations intersect with personal desire. By the end, the reader understands the specific atmospheric and emotional influences of the Antilles that informed Pissarro’s visual style. The text avoids sentimentality to focus on the atmospheric landscape and the legalistic realities of Jewish life in the nineteenth-century Caribbean.
Balanced in tone; an easy read.
Best for readers like The Story Seeker. Which reader are you?
- Published
- 2015
- Language
- EN
