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The Last Painting of Sara de Vos

By: Dominic Smith
Narrated by: Edoardo Ballerini
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Publisher's Summary

This is what we long for: the profound pleasure of being swept into vivid new worlds, worlds peopled by characters so intriguing and real that we can't shake them, even long after the story's told.

In this extraordinary audiobook, The Last Painting of Sara de Vos, Australian writer Dominic Smith brilliantly bridges the historical and the contemporary, tracking a collision course between a rare landscape by a female Dutch painter of the Golden Age, an inheritor of the work in 1950s Manhattan, and a celebrated Australian art historian who painted a forgery of it in her youth.

In 1631, Sara de Vos is admitted to the Guild of St. Luke in Holland as a master painter, the first woman to be so honoured. 300 years later, only one work attributed to de Vos is known to remain - a haunting winter scene, At the Edge of a Wood, which hangs over the Manhattan bed of a wealthy descendant of the original owner.

An Australian grad student, Ellie Shipley, struggling to stay afloat in New York, agrees to paint a forgery of the landscape, a decision that will haunt her. Because now, half a century later, she's curating an exhibition of female Dutch painters, and both versions threaten to arrive.

As the three threads intersect with increasing and exquisite suspense, The Last Painting of Sara de Vos mesmerises while it grapples with the demands of the artistic life, showing how the deceits of the past can forge the present.

©2016 Dominic Smith (P)2016 Macmillan Audio USA

What listeners say about The Last Painting of Sara de Vos

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  • Overall
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    5 out of 5 stars

Great narration terrible Australian accent

A strange choice of narration given that the author is Australian and so is one of the main characters. The narrator is wonderful as a narrator of American characters and I enjoyed his pace and tenor but it isn't necessary to try and speak in an Australian accent. I don't read in accents because I can remember the nationality of the characters. Such a woeful Australian accent and spoilt an intelligent and beautiful telling. Of course I am Australian. We listen too.

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17 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Reading

For a book with a strong Australian slant there should have been a reader who can do an Australian accent. This attempt at an Australian accent was so bad I could not finish what is otherwise a great bok.

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13 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Unlistenable

What a shame an Australian voice actor wasn't chosen for this Australian novel. The weird South African/Kiwi/Irish/English accent that was used for the Australian characters was highly distracting and barely understandable at times. I could not get past the first few chapters and I feel vaguely culturally insulted that the author was treated in this way. I look forward to hearing another, more appropriately voiced, version sometime in the future.

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9 people found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Great story, but 0 out of 10 for Aussie accent

Really enjoyed this story. The interwoven story lines were beautifully done. The dedication to art and artists was inspiring. As for the read, overall I liked it, with a big BUT - that had to be the worst Australian accent impression I've heard and it was very off putting. It would have been better to not go there at all - it confused me, I thought we'd gone to South Africa for some reason or cockney England.

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9 people found this helpful

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    4 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Good book marred by terrible foreign accents

While I am really enjoying the change from crime and romance novels for a bit, and the inclusion of Australia in some of the action and reminiscence, I am so irritated by the appalling Australian accent of the narrator that I am writing this review only half way through the book. Honestly, except for a handful of the best actors, most make a mess of our accent. I can say this narrator does THE worst job of it I have ever heard and it is really detracting from my attention to and enjoyment of the story. (His Dutch accent is terrible too by the way.)

When will you production companies learn? Use Australian narrators when there is more than a passing need for an Australian accent! I just don't see how you made any other choice given a major character in this book is Australian, not to mention many minor characters. Our actors/narrators can do American and standard English accents easily and do just as good a job on the other aspects of reading audio books as anyone else.

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7 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Please don't ever let Edoardo Ballerini attempt an Australian accent again!

I enjoyed this book immensely. However, I was really annoyed by the English/Irish/South African attempt at an Australian accent. Given that one of the two main characters was an Aussie, as well as others, the narrator should have alternated with someone who could manage it better (or at all...he rarely, if ever, hit an Aussie note). Or at the very least, have a dialogue coach. Really disappointing.
The story, however, I enjoyed. Enough said.

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6 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
  • Bev
  • 13-09-2016

Well read but appalling accents.

Whilst i enjoyed the story, the terrible Australian accent was nearly a deal breaker for me. It was a mixture of New Zealander & cockney, with a touch of Irish. Please, if you are going to read in a different accent, get some coaching.

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5 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Great read...

Lovely development of the story line, and beautifully crafted descriptions of the use of light in paintings. The only issue is the incredibly poor Australian accent used by the reader - closer to South African if anything - it rankled all the way through. If you can put that aside, a great listen...

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5 people found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Parallels between different art worlds

A very different yet beautiful story with many parallels between characters and different time periods.
Although the narrator does a terrible Australian accent, his soothing voice transcends you into a different time and adds to the beauty of this story line.

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4 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Excellent story, shame about the reader.

It took a few chapters to discover the serious flaw in this rendition of an excellent book. Bt that time I was engrossed in the story so with gritted teeth plowed on. The flaw? The reader's atrocious Australian accent. Oh and when he attempted a Dutch accent it was almost as bad. Plus he was not good at women's voices. Totally spoiled the reading ( unless you have cloth ears for accents) So sad as I loved the plot and the writing.

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3 people found this helpful

In the spirit of reconciliation, Audible acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of country throughout Australia and their connections to land, sea and community. We pay our respect to their elders past and present and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples today.