A story centred around a fresco in Italy by Francesco del Cossa. The book is in two parts. One part is the story of the painter's life and work - the painter is actually a woman but passes herself as a man for her entire working life (dies early of the plague). The second part is the story of a girl named George (shortened full name) who visits the fresco with her mother shortly before her mother's sudden death.
Like all of Smith's books, hard to say what it is really about. There is certainly a very sensitive appreciation of the actual fresco work at the centre of the book - makes you want to go see it. Themes of sex roles, of same sex relationships. A sensitive appreciation of some of the feelings and thoughts around grief and loss. An unusual take on the true hurt or crime of pornography.
The characters are complex, so many themes and issues are touched on.
How to be both - in the first part, maybe how to be both a man and a woman. In the second part, perhaps how to be both a child and an adult (George is in some stage of early adolescence I think)
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