Publisher's Synopsis
Amsterdam in the 1630s: blessed by not only commecial wealth, but also the richness of art, literature and music. Sophia Sandvoort's elderly husband Cornelis has commissioned a portrait of them both, including in it a voluptuous, striking tulip. For Cornelis, like many of his fellow Dutchmen, has made money from the precarious but rampant speculation on this exotic new flower and its bulbs which grips Holland. But between the young bride Sophia and the painter, Jan Van Loos, burns a fierce attraction. With her customary skill at capturing men and women's emotions and fears, Moggach unfolds a story of sexual betrayal and infidelity. A grand deception is conceived leading events towards a tragic climax. . . From one of our foremost contemporary writers comes her most accomplished novel to date. An exquisitely crafted novel of art and illusion, doomed love and a tulip bulb.
