The Jewel

'Striking... Hegarty has gifted us a vital book for our time. Bathed in light, seeped in colour; it is full of the act of being mortal - in a landscape that is - slowly, finally - finding what it means to be human' IRISH TIMES.A surprising and ambitious work of fiction centred on the art world, featuring an artist who has become an art thief, an obsessive curator and a specialist in major art thefts.Their stories intersect with the fate of a legendary work by a tragic Victorian woman artist who painted the picture as a kind of funeral dress, using the notoriously fragile distemper technique.At the heart of this moving and unusual novel is a strange painting by a woman who committed suicide rather than live with neglect and pain.Her final glowingly beautiful work was painted with a technique more usual for posters and banners, and not designed to last.She intended it as her shroud. It hangs in a Dublin gallery, and it is desired by a collector who is willing to pay to have it stolen.The