Author(s): Sue Hubbard

Novel | Art

Girl in White, is the extraordinary and moving story of Paula Mendershohn-Becker told from the fictionalised perspective of her daughter Mathilde. Denounced as degenerate by the Nazis, after her death, Sue Hubbard has drawn on Becker's diaries and paintings to bring to life the artist's intense relationship with the poet Rilke and her struggle to find a balance between being a painter, wife and mother. Beautifully observed and evocative the novel is as satisfying as it is compelling. "Imagine a chest of drawers - unopened for a hundred years. A woman today opens the drawers, unfolds what she finds and, as she does so, the garments become stories... the secrets of some exceptional, very lonely paintings, which had a considerable influence on "modern" German art.I recommend this haunting book." John Berger Beautifully written and wholly knowledgeable - Girl in White is a triumph of literary and artistic understanding, a tour du force: masterly, moving. 'Hubbard goes where few dare go, and succeeds. You are the less for not reading it. Fay Weldon