I'm so pleased to annouce the first Book Club Girl on Air show for November will feature the author Sheramy Bundrick, who will talk to us about Sunflowers, her new historical novel about Vincent van Gogh.
A young prostitute seeking temporary refuge from the brothel, Rachel awakens in a beautiful garden in Arles to discover she is being sketched by a red-haired man in a yellow straw hat. This is no ordinary artist but the eccentric painter Vincent van Gogh—and their meeting marks the beginning of a remarkable relationship. He arrives at their first assignation at No. 1, Rue du Bout d'Arles, with a bouquet of wildflowers and a request to paint her—and before long, a deep, intense attachment grows between Rachel and the gifted, tormented soul. But the sanctuary Rachel seeks from her own troubled past cannot be found here, for demons war within Vincent's heart and mind. And one shocking act will expose the harsh, inescapable truth about the artist she has grown to love more than life. A novel of Vincent van Gogh, Sheramy Bundrick’s Sunflowers is an arresting and beautiful tale of a young French prostitute’s passionate, doomed relationship with a troubled artist. Vividly evoking a bygone time and place, Bundrick brings her characters to breathtaking life as she seamlessly blends historical fact with riveting speculation.
Publishers Weekly called Sunflowers "a knockout debut novel...an impressive volume of suspense, delight, and heartbreak," and Susan Vreeland, author of the New York Times bestseller The Girl in Hyacinth Blue, says it "lays bare in rich, compelling scenes the mystery of the trubulent and misunderstood final two years in van Gogh's life."
Bundrick is an Art Historian, a Professor of Art at the University of South Florida at St. Petersburg, and the author of several scholarly publications. Sunflowers goes on sale on 10/13, but if you sign up to participate in the show, you can read a copy before it goes on sale! The first 15 people to comment that they'd like to participate will receive a free copy of the book to read in preparation for the show on Monday, November 2nd at 7 pm ET.
Be sure to check out Bundrick's website and her Van Gogh's Chair blog, the reading group guide to Sunflowers, and set your reminder for the show on November 2nd.
