In The Full Light Of The Sun

Based on a true story, this gorgeous new novel follows the fortunes of three Berliners caught up in an art scandal—involving newly discovered van Goghs—that rocks Germany amidst the Nazis’ rise to power.

Hedonistic and politically turbulent, Berlin in the 1920s is a city of seedy night clubs and sumptuous art galleries. It is home to millionaires and mobs storming bakeries for rationed bread. These disparate Berlins collide when Emmeline, a young art student; Julius, an art expert; and a mysterious dealer named Rachmann all find themselves caught up in the astonishing discovery of thirty-two previously unknown paintings by Vincent van Gogh.

In the Full Light of the Sun explores the trio’s complex relationships and motivations, their hopes, their vanities, and their self-delusions—for the paintings are fakes and they are in their own ways complicit. Theirs is a cautionary tale about of the aspirations of the new Germany and a generation determined to put the humiliations of the past behind them.

With her signature impeccable and evocative historical detail, Clare Clark has written a gripping novel about beauty and justice, and the truth that may be found when our most treasured beliefs are revealed as illusions.  |

“In Clare Clark’s terrific new novel, In the Full Light of the Sun, the story of van Gogh’s posthumous rise to fame bursts from history like a spurt of the artist’s beloved chrome yellow from a tube of paint.” —New York Times Book Review  “In the Full Light of the Sun is clearly the product of smart, painstaking research, yet it reads like lived experience...The result is a novel as intricate as filigree in its structure and as powerful as a storm surge in its headlong sweep...Clark has outdone herself.” —Seattle Times  “Clark brilliantly evokes both the decadence of Weimar Berlin and the impending Nazi menace. Her characters’ singular struggles prove riveting...Above all, though, it is the heightened intrigue that keeps us invested.”—Minneapolis Star Tribune “As compelling as it is expansive . . . In an age that has apparently lost faith in experts and verifiable sources of information, Clark’s fictionalization of the Wacker affair stands as a salutary tale for the post-truth era.”—Guardian (UK)   “ A gripping and ultimately moving story about art, artifice and authenticity.”—Mail on Sunday (UK)   “With great skill and sympathy, Clark evokes a febrile society in which politics, love and art offer no certainties, and the ground always threatens to open beneath her characters’ feet.”—Sunday Times (UK)   "Clark's mastery of historic and artistic details merges with skillful plotting and compelling characters in this accomplished novel. A suspenseful, atmospheric portrait of Berlin during Hitler's rise."—Kirkus Reviews   "Infused with Clark’s signature attention to historical detail...Evocative prose and excellent pacing make this fine historical a must-read for art history buffs."—Publishers Weekly