The Portrait

A national bestseller from acclaimedauthor Iain Pears The Portrait is a novel of suspense and a tour de force.. An art critic journeys to a remote island off Brittany to sit for a portrait painted by an old friend a gifted but tormented artist living in self-imposed exile. The painter recalls their years of friendship the gift of the critic''s patronage and his callous betrayals. As he struggles to capture the character of the man as well as his image on canvas it becomes clear that there is much more than a portrait at stake.... Iain Pears''s An Instance of the Fingerpost and The Dream of Scipio are also available from Riverhead Books.