The Dance of Geometry (Hardcover)

BRIAN HOWELL has masterfully interwoven three imagined episodes from the life of Johannes Vermeer. We observe the painter's own childhood and apprenticeship. We read a crime story involving an episode from the life of a modern-day 'copyist' who is blackmailed into forging a masterpiece to save the woman he loves. We follow a French connoisseur who travels to Delft to visit Vermeer, only to find himself embroiled in a clandestine and deadly debate of the Painter's Guild about a new invention. Howell has created a work of breathtaking originality. Not only does this novel provide imaginative insight into the formation of an artist's 'vision', charting his developing obsession with geometry and remoteness--but Howell illuminates the very act of seeing, in a way that informs us about the creative process. Katherine Weber wrote, "this is a rich and sensuous read by a thoughtful and exquisitely attuned writer."