Her entry begins:I just finished The Beak of the Finch by Jonathan Weiner. I was in the Galapagos so this recent non-fiction Pulitzer Prize-winning book about evolution was perfect to read in the evenings after a day of seeing the many species of Galapagos finch, the giant tortoises, the sea lions and the little penguins. It was amazing to learn about how fast evolution happens and is constantly happening--whether it is in the bird world or the insect world or even in our world.About The Ghostbrush(US title: The Printmaker's Daughter):
On the flight home I bought...[read on]
As a child, Oei joined her father, Hokusai, the printmaker, in his studio. In a time when a woman was a possession of her men folk, Oei laboured to bring her father’s visions to life. Her home of Edo (Tokyo) was the largest city in theLearn more about the book and author at Katherine Govier's website.world, teeming with peasants, warriors, townsmen, merchants, and nobles. Always broke, living beyond convention, dodging the censors and devoted to the old man, Oei left hundreds of beautiful pictures. But she - and her work – are lost to history.
Or are they?
Now, 150 years after the death of Edo’s great eccentrics, scholars examine the thousands of Hokusai paintings in museums from New York to London, Amsterdam to Tokyo. Some are forgeries; many are the work of students. But the authorship of the greatest works, painted in the last ten years of Hokusai’s life, is a mystery.
This novel combines international research, scholarly detective work, and imagination. It brings a great, lost woman artist to life—and exposes the process by which she was subtracted from history.
Writers Read: Katherine Govier.
--Marshal Zeringue
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