The Sitter

A highly original work told by Hortense Cezanne, the wife of the celebrated artist, as she witnesses an author in 2020 write a book about her life.

Paris, 2020. A writer is confined to her hotel room during the early days of the pandemic, struggling to finish a novel about Hortense Cezanne, wife and sometime muse of the famous painter. Dead for more than a century, Hortense has been reawakened by this creative endeavour, and now shadows the writer through the locked-down city. But Hortense, always subject to the gaze of others, is increasingly intrigued by the woman before her. Who is she and what event hides in her past?

Heartbreaking and perfectly formed, The Sitter explores the tension between artist and subject, and between the stories told about us and the stories we choose to tell.

‘The Sitter is phenomenal. A remarkable feat and enthralling work, The Sitter is elegantly constructed – a book that weaves between reality and unreality and wonder with supreme ease. The nested scenes work perfectly, with not a word nor theme nor scene wasted. It moves through layers like music, up and down registers of hope and awe, regret, sadness and self-knowledge. The historical aspects are fascinating, the contemporary scenes compelling. O'Keeffe's work floats. I was utterly spellbound.' – MICHELLE JOHNSTON

‘Meditative and elegant, The Sitter by Angela O'Keeffe is the story of two women who find themselves in the study of each other. Their stories, their connections, are beautifully layered in this touching novel.' – MIRANDI RIWOE

‘So assured in its experimentation.' CHARLOTTE WOOD