Finalist for the Baileys Women's Prize
Annie McDee, thirty-one, lives in a shabby London flat, works as a chef, and is struggling to get by. Reeling from a sudden breakup, sheтАЩs taken on an unsuitable new lover and finds herself rummaging through a secondhand shop to buy him a birthday gift. A dusty, anonymous old painting catches her eye. After spending her meager savings on the artwork, Annie prepares an exquisite birthday dinner for twoтАФonly to be stood up.┬а
The painting becomes hers, and Annie begins to suspect that it may be more valuable than sheтАЩd thought. Soon she finds herself pursued by parties who would do anything to possess her picture: an exiled Russian oligarch, an avaricious sheikha, an unscrupulous art dealer. In her search for the paintingтАЩs identity, Annie will unwittingly discover some of the darkest secrets of European historyтАФand the possibility of falling in love again.┬а
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