Swift River Valley, 1938: within weeks the new Quabbin Reservoir will drown farms, churches, and graves. Into the hush of evacuation comes Sarianna Renway, a seventeen‑year‑old Mount Holyoke student hired to tutor an eleven‑year‑old prodigy in the nearly deserted parish of Greenwich, Massachusetts.
Inside the parsonage, playfulness vibrates against menace. Reverend Jeremy Treat clings to his dwindling flock; his ethereal wife, Una, still aches for Ethan Vear—the vanished lover who may also be her half‑brother—while their son, Jimmy, dissects Latin and scripture with unnerving brilliance.
As Sarianna’s days fill with recitation and midnight confessions—and crews scrape coffins from the hillside—her identity begins to blur with Una’s. Discovering Ethan living wild in the woods, she steps into a tangle of desire and betrayal powerful enough to outpace the coming flood. A lush historical mystery steeped in passion and loss, Artist of the Beautiful resurfaces as the valley drowns—a portrait of longing that won’t stay buried.
- “…should be hailed at every turn…” — The New York Times Book Review
- “A gothically tempestuous, not undelightful examination of the anxiety of influence.” — Kirkus Reviews
- “…endlessly inventive… excellent literary entertainment.” — Publishers Weekly
- “A great tale of love, death, and intrigue in a dying New England village.” — Booklist
- “Possessed by a passion so elemental as to transcend the bounds of convention and even of the grave.” — The Boston Globe