This is a difficult one to review because I feel really conflicted about it. It’s a very ugly book in many ways, full of bitterness and disappointment, ugly behaviours and lies, but at its heart lies the story of a man (Federí) who is led by his obsession for painting above all other things, and the relationship his son (Mimi) has with him and the troubled and conflicted feelings that arise from this artistic endeavour overshadowing the lives of the whole family and colouring the young son’s childhood and adolescence. It’s very interesting psychologically as the son tries to understand his own rebellion against every character trait resembling that of his father’s, who is deeply distasteful to him due to his treatment of the boy’s mother and his obsessive lying and bragging - but it’s also difficult to read so much hardship and bitterness - a lot of the novel has a feeling of overwhelming negativity and it took me a ridiculously long time to read it, perhaps for this reason. I definitely found the novel interesting though so I don’t regret reading it - but I don’t really know how I feel about it! I’m not sure why it needed to be so long, though - it meanders back and forth and seems to cover the same ground over and over again - there was not much of an arc.

My thanks to #NetGalley and Europa Editions for an advanced reader copy in exchange for an honest review.