When 14-year-old Alice Kessler meets a young painter named Thomas Bayber on her family’s lakeside holiday, she is not to know that this handsome charmer is to become a world-renowned artist – and that their futures will forever be intrinsically linked. But Alice isn’t the only Kessler sister who Thomas meets that summer, and Alice is once again reminded of the headstrong Natalie’s natural magnetism, and the rift that has grown between them. Natalie Kessler’s beauty had become apparent to everyone, including herself, while Alice was merely a book-loving dreamer with a passion for birds.
But 44 years later, it was that very bird lover’s face who was staring out of the painting Kessler Sisters upon which art professor Dennis Finch gazed. Alice Kessler, her sister Natalie and the author of the artwork himself, the infamous Thomas Bayber. And it was Thomas who revealed such a painting to Dennis and an eccentric art authenticator named Stephen Jameson, explaining that the sisters had both disappeared from his life, taking their – and Thomas’ own – secrets with them. Will he choose to resurrect the past, and what will that mean for all involved?
The Gravity of Birds is a beautiful tale of love, loss and longing that combines powerful imagery with an engrossing narrative about the tenuous relationship of two very different sisters. Although heartbreaking at times, this is a compelling read that you’ll want to know the end of.
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