This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it, while at times based on historical figures, are the work of the author’s imagination.
The Borough Press
An imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers
1 London Bridge Street
London SE1 9GF
Published by HarperCollinsPublishers 2017
Copyright © Christina Baker Kline 2017
Christina Baker Kline asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Cover design © HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd 2018
Cover illustration © Alan Dingman
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Source ISBN: 9780008220099
Ebook Edition © 2017 ISBN: 9780008220082
Version: 2018-02-19
Praise for A Piece of the World
‘A moving portrait of a woman in search of autonomy and purpose in her life’
Sunday Times Culture
‘A graceful, moving and powerful demonstration of what can happen when a fearless literary imagination combines with an inexhaustible curiosity about the past and the human heart: a feat of time travel, a bravura improvisation on the theme of art history, a wonderful story that seems to have been waiting, all this time, for Christina Baker Kline to come along and tell it’
MICHAEL CHABON, author of Moonglow
‘With remarkable precision and compassion, A Piece of the World transports us to a mid-century farmhouse on the coast of Maine. But just like the painting that inspired it, this novel is about so much more. It’s about the terrors and injustices of childhood, the aches of adulthood, the regrets of middle age. It’s a story about a woman trapped by family and duty and her own ailing body ... Christina Baker Kline has accomplished something grand’
NATHAN HILL, author of The Nix
‘Christina Baker Kline writes about home an dplace with wisdom and tenderness, but most of all she writes about Christina Olson with compassion, empathy and resounding admiration. This is an inspiring, haunting, powerful novel’
HELEN SEDGWICK, author of The Comet Seekers
‘An affecting and memorable novel... unexpected and bleakly beautiful world. I thought it explored the nature of art and inspiration in a fascinating way, whilst also posing profound questions about what endures and what proves transitory; about the roles we choose and those which are forced upon us’
MATTHEW PLAMPIN, author of Will & Tom
‘The novel evokes the sombre grace of those paintings in language as earnest and straightforward as Wyeth’s brush strokes’
New York Times Book Review
‘With delicate palette, stark images, subtle tones, nuances brushstrokes, and consummate craftsmanship, Christina Baker Kline has written this novel the way Andrew Wyeth painted the canvas. It is a masterpiece’
Historical Novel Society
‘Tender, tragic, A Piece of the World is a fascinating exploration of the life lived inside that house at the top of the hill’
LILY KING, author of Euphoria
‘A brilliantly imagined fictional memoir of the woman in the famed Wyeth painting ‘Christina’s World,’ so detailed, moving, and utterly transportive that I’ll never be able to look at the paining again without thinking of this book’
ERIK LARSON, author of Dead Wake
‘Painterly, sensuous, and sympathetic’
Kirkus Review
‘A pure, powerful story of suffering met with a fight. In fiction, in her quiet way, Christina triumphs – and so does this novel’
O Magazine
‘Insightful, evocative prose brings Christina’s singular perspective and indomitable spirit to life’
Publishers Weekly
‘With beautiful and stunning prose, the novel explores the sensitive and complex bond between artist and muse against the beauty of the rural American lanscape’
Daily Beast
‘Epic’
Cosmopolitan
‘In this beautifully observed fictional memoir, Kline uses Andrew Wyeth’s iconic paining Christina’s World as the taking-off point for a moving portrait of the artist’s real-life muse’
People
‘Brings to vivid life a little-known corner of history... Avoiding sentimental uplift, A Piece of the World offers unsparing insight into the real woman behind the painting’
USA Today
‘A gorgeous read’
Real Simple
For my father,
who showed me the world
‘There was a very strange connection. One of those odd collisions that happen. We were a little alike; I was an unhealthy child that was kept at home. So there was an unsaid feeling between us that was wonderful, an utter naturalness. We’d sit for hours and not say a word, and then she’d say something, and I’d answer her. A reporter once asked her what we talked about. She said, ‘Nothing foolish.”’
—Andrew Wyeth
Contents