The book follows the discovery of a Spanish painting in London during the early 1960’s, who painted it and how did it came into the hands of Laurie following the death of his mother. The story at this point shifts to 1930’s Spain during the build up to the Spanish civil war, and introduces us to the entwined lives of an Austrian art dealer his English family, and a young Spanish brother and sister. I knew nothing of the Spanish Civil war so I found the story much more interesting whenever it switched to this period. If it were not for this I’m not sure I would of stuck with the book. Possibly because this is quite recent history and I enjoy a story set during an older period of history. There were quite a few twists to the outcome of the story that I had not expected, but was not entirely surprised by. I guess the story about a painting and how it came about is not new, in fact, throughout reading this book all I could think about was it’s no Tracy Chevalier novel. If you have not read any of her books then you will probably enjoy this book - but if you love The Lady and the Unicorn or Girl with a Pearl Earring you will more than likely be disappointed.