KEEPING THE WORLD AWAY
Margaret Forster
Ballantine Books
Fiction
Hardcover: 0345496337
Paperback: 9780345496348

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From internationally bestselling author Margaret Forster comes an engrossing novel that follows the imagined life of an evocative, actual early-twentieth-century painting as it changes hands and, though the years, affects the lives of a succession of women.

Gwen, a bold and spirited young English artist, defies convention and sets out to study in Paris, where she has a tumultuous affair with the inspiring, controlling sculptor Rodin. But as the relationship cools, Gwen feels lonely and adrift as she awaits the ever more infrequent visits from her lover. Attempts to restore her artistic vision and recapture her true self, Gwen pours out her soul onto a canvas, creating a small, intimate painting of a quiet corner of her attic room.

Lost, found, stolen, sold, and fought over, the painting enchants all who possess it. First it falls into the hands of Charlotte, a dreamy intellectual with artistic leanings—though little talent. In turn the work finds its way to the lovely, bright Stella; the destitute but willful Lucasta; self-sufficient Ailsa; and finally young, curious Gillian—all of whom share an unspoken desire to “keep the world away” and long for a tranquil golden place such as the one depicted in the painting.

Margaret Forster takes readers on a compelling and sensual journey, crossing land, sea, and generations. Written in richly detailed prose, Keeping the World Away is a captivating novel of art and artistry, of desire and creation—truly a masterpiece unto itself.

KEEPING THE WORLD AWAY © Copyright 2008 by Margaret Forster. Reprinted with permission by Random House. All rights reserved.

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Critical Praise

"Margaret Forster has a god-given gift for storytelling."

--- The Times

"In a brief paragraph [Forster] can create a character we care about, a story we long to see resolved."

--- The Independent

"Movingly done . . . Forster has taken the fertile subject of a work of art its place in the psyche of the artist, and what it may engender in the psyches of those who encounter it."

--- The Guardian

"Another magical story . . . from the queen of ladies’ fiction."

--- Tatler

"A finely crafted novel. Its meditations on the tensions within the human heart, and on the need at times to keep the world away, is sustained by Gwen John’s image, a painting seemingly empty yet imbued with a plentitude of feeling. . . . [Forster’s] historical skills are, as always, matched by her marvelous empathy."

--- The Sunday Times

"Fascinating and well-researched . . . As in Lady’s Maid [Forster] uses historical background and combines it with her imagination to produce a beautifully crafted piece of writing. . . . a delightful novel in which you can lose yourself and ‘keep the world away."

--- Books Quarterly

"A rich and imaginative journey . . . a deeply personal and intimate story . . . of what it meant to be a woman at various times in the last century."

--- The Works

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