"You have to make peace with the past or you can never move into the future."
This novel, categorized as Women's Fiction, relates the story of an artist from the 1940s and a present day parolee tasked with restoring a mural in Edenton, North Carolina.
Anna Dale is 22-years-old when she wins a mural competition and, since her mother has just died, finds herself in Edenton in 1940 to produce a 12 foot by 6 foot project for installation in the post office there. Deciding to stay on while painting the mural, she learns that things are quite different in the south than they were in her hometown of Plainfield, New Jersey. Because of events that transpire, Anna vanishes and the mural is never hung.
Present day finds Morgan Christopher in the North Carolina Correctional Facility for Women in Raleigh, North Carolina. She's been imprisioned as the result of a drunk driving accident that paralyzed a young women. Hope comes in the form of two African-American women who visit to offer her probation and a job. It seems that, although she never finished art school due to her crime, a famous artist has recently died and wants to open a gallery in his hometown. There is a mural that she is meant to restore, one that has been hidden and nearly destroyed. Of course she accepts even though she knows nothing about art restoration and finds herself in Edenton. Morgan becomes obsessed with the mural's artist, Anna Dale, because the images on the mural are quite disturbing and no one knows what happened to the young woman. As she works, hints of the secrets and lies in that small town are revealed on the canvas. NO SPOILERS.
This novel is told from the viewpoints of Anna and Morgan and each chapter reveals how the mural affected them and describes the events that link them together. Though it is all thoroughly predictable, the writing is good and the description made me really want to actually "see" that piece of artwork in all of its restored form. It's an easy, quick read that discusses the prejudices in a small, southern town during that period of time in history. The themes are self-discovery and redemption and the conclusion is fitting.
Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for this e-book ARC to read and review.
This is a standalone that is not part of any series.
Genre - Women's Fiction
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