Tom Rachman strikes again. I loved this just as much as The Imperfectionists. Rachman is just so damn good at writing completely believable characters, those I love and those I hate. I listened to this read by Sam Alexander (who read it exceptionally well), and I loved it so much I'm going to have to buy the physical book.
It is the life of Charles (Pinch) Bavinsky, and we first meet him when he is five in his father's painting studio in Rome in 1960. Bear Bavinsky is a famous, philandering, egotistical, larger-than-life painter and Pinch is both terrified of him and in awe to him, and really remains so for the whole of his life. And yet although everyone crumples in the path of Bear - his several wives, his many children and so on - Pinch has the last laugh, although it's still not funny. For the most part Pinch's life is a sad one (the cover might say this book has some dark humour, but I didn't find it), solitary, unfulfilled, dissatisfied, but so real. I wanted to shake him. I loved him.