The Last Painting of Sara De Vos by Dominic Smith

Sara De Vos is a 17th century artist in Holland.  Both she and her husband belong to the St. Luke's guild of master painters until things go horribly wrong.   In the 1950's, Australian Ellie Shipley  comes to NYC to work on her PhD in art history.  Her speciality is women artists of the Dutch Golden Age but she earns money repairing old paintings for a less than honest antiques dealer.  When she is asked to make a copy of a De Vos painting, she welcomes the challenge to put all she has learned to work.  The copy is perfect except for one minor flaw.  In 2000 in Sidney, Australia, Marty de Groot has come to confront the woman who decades before made a copy of a painting that was  stolen from his wall 50 years ago - a painting that had been in his family for 300 years.  Three lives all connected to one painting.  You may think you now how this story goes but maybe not.  That being said it is really only a bit of a mystery and more a story of discovery.

The Tsar of Love and Techno: Stories by Anthony Marra

Still in Russia.  Still in Chechnya.  Still crazy good writing.  These  nine stories are connected by characters, a painting and the Siberian landscape.  After the first few pages, I was prepared for another deeply sad, beautifully written deep dive into a dark part of Russian/Ukrainian history.  It took me couple of beats to realize that I was smiling at his sarcastic humor.  This book is funny - dark - but funny. Half way through I created "A Constellation of Vital Characters".  I am really done with his take on Russia but oh so ready to hear more of the voice that writes "We imprint our intimacies upon atoms born from an explosion so great it still marks the emptiness of space." I mean, really.