Penelope Keeling is in her sixties and living in a Cornish house, the daughter of a painter, Lawrence Stern, whose work has fallen out of fashion. Her most treasured possession is his painting The Shell Seekers. When her grown children, Nancy, Olivia, and Noel, begin to press her to sell it, she has to decide what her father's work and her own memories are worth. Rosamunde Pilcher alternates between the present and Penelope's past, including her bohemian childhood and her experiences during World War II, to show how a life accumulates value.
It is a good fit for readers who like long, quiet, English family novels that reward attention to character.
Inward-looking and clear-cut; an easy read.
Best for readers like The Empathetic Explorer. Which reader are you?
- Published
- 1987
- Language
- EN
