Two young Englishwomen find themselves in Germany in the 1930s. Sidonie and Naomi are fascinated by this Germany, where the past grandeur of the Reich seems to be reborn. They mingle with the political elite of this new Germany, approaching its leaders.
Naomi is a painter. Her paintings are renowned and highly valued. Although Naomi died in 1947, we are in England in 1997, and Sidonie sells her sister’s paintings sparingly. An art dealer wants to know more. He sends his henchman to spy on the cottage while Sidonie, now an 85-year-old lady, attends a friend’s funeral.
The ‘visit’ will open up not-so-pretty memories about the two sisters. Sidonie continues, even after the discovery of Nazi horrors, to justify her choices from before the Second World War.
In England, there was a pro-fascist party at the time. Her confessions, and the emergence of new paintings by her sister, will unveil another mysterious layer regarding the accident in which Naomi was killed.
An intriguing novel with a depiction of today’s England. A country that has lost its bearings. The characters are all more or less lost, and what to make of this barely adolescent kid? A lost dog without a collar in a bleak and corrupted world.
Who is Sidonie, could she not be? Hush, you must read this novel to find out, Paint in Black, paint in the dark more precisely!
