The Sitter

'The Sitter is phenomenal. A remarkable feat and enthralling work, The Sitter is elegantly constructed - a book that weaves between reality and unreality and wonder with supreme ease. The nested scenes work perfectly, with not a word nor theme nor scene wasted. It moves through layers like music, up and down registers of hope and awe, regret, sadness and self-knowledge. The historical aspects are fascinating, the contemporary scenes compelling. O'Keeffe's work floats. I was utterly spellbound.' Michelle Johnston 'Meditative and elegant, The Sitter by Angela O'Keeffe is the story of two women who find themselves in the study of each other. Their stories, their connections, are beautifully layered in this touching novel.' Mirandi Riwoe 'A gorgeous book, deft, tender, clear-eyed, about seeing and being seen; being and having been. A book that shimmers in the space between writer and reader, so full of life and light and knowledge I had to pause over and again to allow the pleasure of the language and images to settle in me before moving on.' Kate Cole-Adams 'In an ingenious reversal, Angela O'Keeffe conjures Paul Cezanne's wife and sitter, Hortense, out of the canvas and on to the page to observe her contemporary Australian writer. Hortense transcends time, language and country to narrate this strange and beautiful hallucination on the endlessly shifting boundary between art and life.' Fiona Kelly McGregor