Bøger af Dominic Smith

A young man's journey of awakening, after travelling amidst many paths.A book of insights to a broader more grand picture of life.Fantasy, fact, or fiction, even Albert Einstein stated "truth is sometimes stranger than fiction". To which he was also known for his reverence for the imagination. Imagin

A Must-Read at The New York Post, BookPage, and The Christian Science Monitor"A story of love, loss, and the enduring power of hope. I was transfixed from page one." ¿Lara Prescott, New York Times bestselling author of The Secrets We KeptFrom the bestselling author of The Last Painting of Sara de Vos, Dominic Smith's Return to Valetto tells of a nearly abandoned Italian village, the family that stayed, and long-buried secrets from World War II.On a hilltop in Umbria sits Valetto. Once a thriving village that survived centuries of earthquakes and landslides and became a hub of resistance and refuge during World War II, it has since been nearly abandoned, as residents sought better lives elsewhere. Only ten remain, including the widows Serafino-three eccentric sisters and their steely centenarian mother-who live quietly in their medieval villa. Then their nephew and grandson, Hugh, a historian, returns.But someone else has arrived before him, laying claim to the cottage where Hugh spent his childhood summers. The unwelcome guest is the captivating and no-nonsense Elisa Tomassi, who asserts that the family patriarch, Aldo Seräno, a resistance fighter whom her own family harbored, gave the cottage to them in gratitude. But like so many threads of history, this revelation unravels a secret-a betrayal, a disappearance, and an unspeakable act of violence-that has affected Valetto across generations. Who will answer for the crimes of the past?Dominic Smith's Return to Valetto is a riveting journey into one family's dark past, a page-turning excavation of the ruins of history, and a probing look at our commitment to justice in a fragile world. It is also a deeply human and transporting testament to the possibility of love and understanding across gaps of all kinds-even time.

A Must-Read at The New York Post, BookPage, and The Christian Science Monitor"A story of love, loss, and the enduring power of hope. I was transfixed from page one." ¿Lara Prescott, New York Times bestselling author of The Secrets We KeptFrom the bestselling author of The Last Painting of Sara de Vos, Dominic Smith's Return to Valetto tells of a nearly abandoned Italian village, the family that stayed, and long-buried secrets from World War II.On a hilltop in Umbria sits Valetto. Once a thriving village that survived centuries of earthquakes and landslides and became a hub of resistance and refuge during World War II, it has since been nearly abandoned, as residents sought better lives elsewhere. Only ten remain, including the widows Serafino-three eccentric sisters and their steely centenarian mother-who live quietly in their medieval villa. Then their nephew and grandson, Hugh, a historian, returns.But someone else has arrived before him, laying claim to the cottage where Hugh spent his childhood summers. The unwelcome guest is the captivating and no-nonsense Elisa Tomassi, who asserts that the family patriarch, Aldo Seräno, a resistance fighter whom her own family harbored, gave the cottage to them in gratitude. But like so many threads of history, this revelation unravels a secret-a betrayal, a disappearance, and an unspeakable act of violence-that has affected Valetto across generations. Who will answer for the crimes of the past?Dominic Smith's Return to Valetto is a riveting journey into one family's dark past, a page-turning excavation of the ruins of history, and a probing look at our commitment to justice in a fragile world. It is also a deeply human and transporting testament to the possibility of love and understanding across gaps of all kinds-even time.

A sweeping work of historical fiction from the New York Times–bestselling author Dominic Smith, The Electric Hotel is a spellbinding story of art and love.For more than thirty years, Claude Ballard has been living at the Hollywood Knickerbocker Hotel. A French pioneer of silent films who started out as a concession agent for the Lumière brothers, the inventors of cinema, Claude now spends his days foraging for mushrooms in the hills of Los Angeles and taking photographs of runaways and the striplings along Sunset Boulevard. But when a film history student comes to interview Claude about The Electric Hotel—the lost masterpiece that bankrupted him and ended the career of his muse, Sabine Montrose—the past comes surging back. In his run-down hotel suite, the ravages of the past are waiting to be excavated: celluloid fragments in desperate need of restoration, as well as Claude’s memories of the woman who inspired and beguiled him.The Electric Hotel is a portrait of a man entranced by the magic of moviemaking, a luminous romance, and a whirlwind trip through early cinema. Sit back, relax, and enjoy the show.

From bestselling author Dominic Smith comes a radiant novel tracing the intertwined fates of a silent-film director and his muse.

The Bird and The Elephant starts with an introduction and is then broken up into 10 poetic discussions. It also features 11 beautifully drawn illustrations.A bird is flying high one day when he decides he needs to take a rest. He glances down below and aims for a large rock. But it isn't a rock! He shockingly discovers he's landed on an elephant's back. They begin having a conversation. The bird is impatient and hot headed while the elephant is calming and wise. Through their discussions the bird learns a lot about life and ultimately, himself.The discussions are: Who are we? Where do we come from? Why are we here? Friendship Why do bad things happen? Happiness Morality Destiny Love Philosophy

Amsterdam, 1631: Sara de Vos becomes the first woman to be admitted as a master painter to the city's Guild of St. Luke. Though women do not paint landscapes (they are generally restricted to indoor subjects), a wintry outdoor scene haunts Sara: She cannot shake the image of a young girl from a nearby village, standing alone beside a silver birch at dusk, staring out at a group of skaters on the frozen river below. Defying the expectations of her time, she decides to paint it.New York City, 1957: The only known surviving work of Sara de Vos, At the Edge of a Wood, hangs in the bedroom of a wealthy Manhattan lawyer, Marty de Groot, a descendant of the original owner. It is a beautiful but comfortless landscape. The lawyer's marriage is prominent but comfortless, too. When a struggling art history grad student, Ellie Shipley, agrees to forge the painting for a dubious art dealer, she finds herself entangled with its owner in ways no one could predict.Sydney, 2000: Now a celebrated art historian and curator, Ellie Shipley is mounting an exhibition in her field of specialization: female painters of the Dutch Golden Age. When it becomes apparent that both the original At the Edge of a Wood and her forgery are en route to her museum, the life she has carefully constructed threatens to unravel entirely and irrevocably.

From the New York Times bestselling author of The Last Painting of Sara de Vos, a dazzling new novel explores the fault lines that can cause a family to drift apart and the unexpected events that can pull them back together.Nathan Nelson is the average son of a genius. His father, a physicist of small renown, has prodded him toward greatness from an early age—enrolling him in whiz kid summer camps, taking him to the icy tundra of Canada to track a solar eclipse, and teaching him college algebra. But despite Samuel Nelson''s efforts, Nathan remains ordinary. Then, in the summer of 1987, everything changes. While visiting his small-town grandfather in Michigan, Nathan is involved in a terrible accident. After a brief clinical death -- which he later recalls as a lackluster affair lasting less than the length of a Top 40 pop song—he falls into a coma. When he awakens, Nathan finds that everyday life is radically different. His perceptions of sight, sound, and memory have been irrevocably changed. The doctors and his parents fear permanent brain damage. But the truth of his condition is more unexpected and leads to a renewed chance for Nathan to find his place in the world. Thinking that his son''s altered brain is worthy of serious inquiry, Samuel arranges for Nathan to attend the Brook-Mills Institute, a Midwestern research center where savants, prodigies, and neurological misfits are studied and their specialties applied. Immersed in this strange atmosphere -- where an autistic boy can tell you what day Christmas falls on in 3026 but can''t tie his shoelaces, where a medical intuitive can diagnose cancer during a long-distance phone call with a patient—Nathan begins to unravel the mysteries of his new mind, and finally make peace with the crushing weight of his father''s expectations.

An utterly gripping story set between 17th century Holland, 1950s Manhattan and 2000s Sydney, following a trail of art, forgery and deception.