Still Life

A Good Morning America Book Club Pick A captivating, bighearted, richly tapestried story of people brought together by love, war, art, flood, and the ghost of E. M. Forster, by the celebrated author of Tin Man.Tuscany, 1944: As Allied troops advance and bombs sink villages, a young English soldier, Ulysses Temper, finds himself in the wine cellar of a deserted villa. There, he has a chance encounter with Evelyn Skinner, a middle-aged art historian intent on salvaging paintings from the ruins. In each other, Ulysses and Evelyn find a kindred spirit amidst the rubble of war-torn Italy, and paint a course of events that will shape Ulysses's life for the next four decades. Returning home to London, Ulysses reimmerses himself in his crew at The Stoat and Parot--a motley mix of pub crawlers and eccentrics--all the while carrying with him his Italian evocations. So, when an unexpected inheritance brings him back to where it all began, Ulysses knows better than to tempt fate: he must return to

"London and Zelinsky have created something unendingly fun but also deeply meaningful: Art takes on a life of its own, no matter how much the artist thinks the work can be controlled!" --Brian Selznick, Caldecott Medal-winning author of The Invention of Hugo CabretA still life painting is a painting where everything is supposed to stay still. But what if it doesn't? Acclaimed author Alex London and Caldecott Medal-winning artist Paul O. Zelinsky bring exquisite life and adventure to this slyly funny and inventive picture book for fans of Christopher Denise's Knight Owl and Corinna Luyken's The Book of Mistakes. Every young artist has drawn or painted a still life scene. Perhaps it is a bowl of fruit, or a toy, or a vase of flowers, or a chair. The only rule is that a still life painting must stay still.But staying still is hard! Especially for a curious mouse and a hungry dragon and a no-nonsense princess. Will the artist notice that his still life painting is breaking all the rules?Fr