The Portrait

This is a short and extremely powerful new novel from one of Holland's greatest living writers. Reminiscent of Oscar Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray, it is narrated by a canvas, a key eye-witness and participant in an extraordinary story.

 A young painter, loved for his fine and true-to-life portraits, receives a commission that is unlike any he's had before: make a portrait of a dead boy. 'You will save a life with it', says the boy's extremely rich father. The painter knows he will have to surpass himself. He takes on the job. But who was the boy? Why is he dead? Why, when the painting is finished, does the father not come to collect it? And why does the painter undertake this painting?

 The Portrait is a thrilling novel about the desire to bring someone into the world. But it also about love and death, betrayal and trust, truth and falsehood, and lies and honesty.

 It's breathtaking how Willem Jan Otten plays with secrets and riddles that the reader can only unravel at the very end. Demonstrating his rare gifts to English readers for the first time in this book, Otten has written an ingenious, contemporary, and extraordinarily gripping novel.