Molly & the Captain

In the summer of 1889 a young man sits painting a line of elms in Kensington Gardens.One day he glimpses a mother at play with her two daughters and decides to includethem in his picture. From that moment he is haunted by dreams that seem toforeshadow his doom.A century later, in Kentish Town, a painter and her grown-up daughters receive news ofan ancestor linking them to the long-vanished double portrait of "Molly & the Captain".Meanwhile friendship with a young musician stirs unexpected passions and threatens totear the family apart.Molly & the Captain is a story about time and art and love. Through the prism of a singlepainting it examines the mysteries of creativity, and the ambiguous nature of success.What weighs more, loyalty to one's talent or loyalty to one's blood? Does self-sacrificeennoble the soul or degrade it? And what does it mean to speak of the past when itshold on the present is inescapable?Through Anthony Quinn's signature gifts - period subtlety, intricate characterisationand storytelling verve this triptych novel melds three families and three centuries into asingle vision of human frailty and longing.