Molly & the Captain

In the summer of 1889 a young man sits painting a line of elms in Kensington Gardens. One day he glimpses a mother at play with her two daughters and decides to includethem in his picture. From that moment he is haunted by dreams that seem toforeshadow his doom. A century later, in Kentish Town, a painter and her grown-up daughters receive news ofan ancestor linking them to the long-vanished double portrait of "Molly & the Captain". Meanwhile friendship with a young musician stirs unexpected passions and threatens totear the family apart. Molly & the Captain is a story about time and art and love. Through the prism of a singlepainting it examines the mysteries of creativity, and the ambiguous nature of success. What weighs more, loyalty to one's talent or loyalty to one's blood. Does self-sacrificeennoble the soul or degrade it. And what does it mean to speak of the past when itshold on the present is inescapable. Through Anthony Quinn's signature gifts - period subtlety, intricate characterisationand storytelling verve this triptych novel melds three families and three centuries into asingle vision of human frailty and longing.