Thanks to NetGalley and the Publisher for the advanced reader copy of "Mrs Van Gogh" by Caroline Cauchi.

I cannot provide a fair review as I did not finish this arc. I read a lot of historical fiction and the bar for a 4 or 5 star novel has been set high for me by Kate Quinn, Amita Parikh, and Pip Williams. I struggled to stay engaged with the characters and the storyline. This one wasn't for me but judging by the 4 and 5 star reviews on Goodreads it has been enjoyed by other readers.

Happy to include this title in The Year in Reading, my annual year-end longread highlighting personal favourite titles for the Books section of Zoomer, Canada’s national culture magazine. (see feature article at link)

I love discovering stories about people that have been written out of history - it is through Johanna's efforts that Van Gogh is so well known, yet I had never heard of this lady previously. This is obviously heavily "inspired" by a true story rather than "based" on one. The pacing is quite slow and drags at times, and would have benefitted from an editor striking at least 100 pages out. Overall a great introduction into the world of art - it had me Googling paintings and sculptures.