Cirrus@Austlit

'To know is enough. To know we killed her together. I willed it, he took the blame, but we did it together. One day he'll look me full in the face and he'll sat it. He'll say: You know why it happened. Yes, I'll say, I know. The air will be noise enough, we won't need more words, but he'll say a few because I am a child. We did it because I know the secret. I am the secret.

'If Leaning Towards Infinity explored the relationship between mothers and daughters and the pursuit of mathematics, Painted Woman gives us the tight and tangled knot binding a father and daughter, and the pursuit of art. Death and art, violence and love, possession and yearning; this is the story of the emergence of a woman artist, because of and despite all.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'From the subtropical lushness of Queensland’s Tamborine Rainforest to the claustrophobic bedroom of a Boston physicist, Janette Turner Hospital’s characters breathe an atmosphere of passion and suspense. Charade Ryan, an enigmatic story-spinning Scheherazade, searches for a way to unravel the long-held secrets of her family origins. As the narrative flits between the present and the past, and truth becomes increasingly subjective, Charade weaves a rich and textural tale out of the myths of her past. This vibrant, superbly crafted novel explores the elusive boundaries between existence and imagination, memory and truth.'

Source: Publisher's blurb (UQP, 2015 ed.)