Tamara Henriques writes contemporary historical fiction and Painting by Numbers is her first novel.
She began writing it on the Faber Novel Course and an early draft was runner up for the Bridport First Novel Prize.
She is now represented by Mark Lucas at the Soho Agency.
Painting By Numbers
“Margot’s only vice was nicotine. And neglect, I suppose, but it was the 1970s, and she was an artist. Apparently, she had an appointment to sell her soul. She didn’t answer when we asked whether it would hurt, staring out of the kitchen window with her back to us, not noticing us ladle extra sugar onto our cornflakes…”
So begins the portrait of a family under strain, seen through the conflicting perspectives of nine-year-old Nina, her mother, 29-year-old Margot, and her older father, Robin.
We watch the family implode during one fateful fortnight in the summer of 1974, after Margot hotfoots it with her twins to an artist’s retreat north of the border, leaving Robin to console himself with Serena, his latest muse.
Nina, the observer of the family drama, will stop at nothing to get their life back to normal.
Testimonials
What Victoria Hislop had to say:
“From the opening sentence: “The day my sister and I burnt the house down, our mother was out with her dealer, Cosmo.” I was totally hooked!
… I believed totally in the characters of the children, but of course most importantly in the harassed and mildly irresponsible artist-mother.
She is a wonderfully flawed human being, but all the more likeable for that and I hugely enjoyed reading about her situation. The fraught relationship with her husband lurks like a shadow in the early chapters, very subtly alluded to, but making us want to know and understand more.
… Henriques never over-writes. There is humour (which is hard to do well) and the story is always engaging and never dull. This is a novel where I found myself turning pages quickly to find out what happened next.”
What Tom Bradby had to say:
“I picked up PAINTING BY NUMBERS this morning and finished it at midnight. It’s the best novel I’ve read in at least a decade. Nine-year-old Nina, in particular, will live long in my memory. Her uniquely beguiling voice echoes at the heart of this arresting, subtle, moving, perceptive, profound, and bitingly funny story of damaged people and the damage they (often unintentionally) perpetuate.”