Critical Praise

“As this story of art, beauty, deception and the harshest kinds of loss ranged over continents and centuries, I was completely transfixed by the sense of unfolding revelation. THE LAST PAINTING OF SARA DE VOS is, quite simply, one of the best novels I have ever read, and as close to perfect as any book I’m likely to encounter in my reading life. It’s one of those rare books I’ll return to again and again in the coming years.” 

—Ben Fountain, author of BILLY LYNN’S LONG HALFTIME WALK

“Gliding gracefully from grungy 1950s Brooklyn to the lucent interiors of Golden Age Holland and the sun-splashed streets of contemporary Sydney, THE LAST PAINTING OF SARA DE VOS links the lives of two troubled, enigmatic and hugely talented young women, one of them an artist, the other her forger. A page-turning book with much to say about the pain and exhilaration of art and life.” 

—Geraldine Brooks, author of THE SECRET CHORD

“Highly evocative of time and place, this stunning novel explores a triumvirate of fate, choice, and consequence and is worthy of comparison to Tracy Chevalier’s GIRL WITH A PEARL EARRING and Donna Tartt’s THE GOLDFINCH…. Just as a painter may utilize thousands of fine brushstrokes, Dominic Smith slowly creates a masterly, multilayered story that will dazzle readers of fine historical fiction.”

—Susanne Wells, Library Journal (starred review)

“In THE LAST PAINTING OF SARA DE VOS, Dominic Smith moves effortlessly between his 17th-century artist and those who fall under the spell of her work more than 300 years later. Smith is a writer of huge gifts, and his descriptions of the painting and of those who fall in love with it (and with each other) are rendered with wondrous intelligence and keen wit. The result is a novel of surprising beauty and piercing suspense. I couldn’t stop turning the pages even while the last thing I wanted was to reach the end.” 

—Margot Livesey, author of THE FLIGHT OF GEMMA HARDY