The Art of Her Life

by Cynthia Newberry Martin

At nine years old, on her first visit to a museum, Emily fell in love with Breakfast , a painting by Henri Matisse. Now a single mother, she lives in the world of art and can barely find time for her two daughters, much less for Mark, the man she loves. Her days are a jumble—she’s lost the thread of her life—but a contest at the museum where she’s the registrar gives her hope—the chance to see Breakfast again. Matisse’s words and paintings permeate her days and nights, and glancing at a note card of the painting she loves, she sees something she’s never seen before. The Art of Her Life shows the power of art to transform an ordinary life.

"Cynthia Newberry Martin’s new novel is a bold transcendent meditation on desire, memory, motherhood, and the power of art to remake a life. I loved this book. I could not put it down. There’s a spare lyric grace to Martin’s writing, and in this story, she captures the nuances of ordinary life – what we love and fear to risk, what we lose and ache to hold. The Art of Her Life is a rare, exquisite work of fiction."
—Dawn Tripp, author of Georgia, a novel of Georgia O’Keeffe

"Cynthia Newberry Martin is a deeply gifted writer. The Art of Her Life should be placed on the same shelf as A.S. Byatt's The Matisse Stories . When tragic things happen to the character of Emily, she becomes devoted to a kind of Gospel of Henri Matisse, and she gets lost in the artist's life in order to find her own life again. This is a family story; this is a love story. But the novel combines these in profound and original ways. The splendid prose is tinted with the inimitable melancholy of Matisse's blue."
—Howard Norman, author of The Ghost Clause

"In The Art of Her Life, Cynthia Newberry Martin tenderly and delicately shows how the unexpected turns of a life can most often only be steadied and moored by what we hold deepest inside. It is told with no punches pulled. No self-interrogation spared. Just a keen and blunt honesty. A lovely and moving novel that celebrates the legacy of the creative spirit, the power and salvation of art, and the challenges in balancing an intellectual life with an emotional life."
—Adam Braver, author of Rejoice the Head of Paul McCartney

"With grace and clarity, Cynthia Newberry Martin paints in this novel a lasting portrait of love and family, of love and perseverance, of love and beauty and care and heart. Even in the face of loss, every brushstroke of life becomes somehow sacred, a blessing, an abundance. "
—William Lychack, author of Cargill Falls

"The Art of Her Life is a rare book about an adult woman with the full complement of responsibilities—children, job, love, passions—grappling with how to manage and juggle them. Matisse's art, and the painting Breakfast in particular, is a character in this gorgeous book—his use of color and channeling of emotion form lifelines for our protagonist. Matisse accompanies Emily on her journey as she learns that, paradoxically, it is only through surrender that we can feel life's wholeness. I loved this book."
—Lindsey Mead, editor of On Being Forty(ish)

Genres: Fiction

320 pages, Paperback

First published June 5, 2023

About the author

I grew up in the sixties in the heart of Atlanta, went to college in North Carolina, spent a year teaching English in France, practiced law, and had kids. French was my first passion, but I had a free moment back in late 90's, and when I thought about what I wanted to do with the rest of my life, I thought, books are so cool and I decided I wanted to do what they did. Currently, I spend my days in Columbus, GA, with my husband, and in Provincetown, MA, in a little house by the water. Provincetown is my favorite place on earth.

Reviews

[Bridget Bell · Rating 4 out of 5]

(review for talk lit, get hit podcast)

brb, just gotta wipe up the puddles of tears I left at the breakfast table.

thanks to netgalley and the publisher for the eARC. review to come.

The Art of Her Life left me crying at the breakfast table. The fragility of life, love, friendship and the mother-daughter relationship is explored in a heartbreakingly beautiful way. There were many quotes that took my breath away.

[Niko · Rating 5 out of 5]

“Now I realize the significance of being the one to be there when the bus pulls into the parking lot.
Not Paris or Rome or a candlelight dinner, not finishing Anna Karenina-just living an ordinary life and being there, the privilege of being there for the people you love, and who love you.”

Oh gosh. What can I say about this masterpiece? This book shattered me. Broke me into so many different pieces — one for each person I’ve lost: my grandmother, who died when I was five. My friend who died two Decembers ago. My grandpa who died this morning. So many others whom it hurts to name.

This book was so beautiful, interlaced with paintings and links to articles and art that added to the story so perfectly. The writing, the colors, the story itself all created this incredible portrait in my head that I think will become somewhat of a core memory for me.

In short, if you want to see the beauty in the mundane and also cry a lot, you should read this book.

Thank you to Fomite and NetGalley for providing me with a digital copy of this book.

[Karen · Rating 3 out of 5]

The second half of the book had me in tears — and I don’t cry. The Matisse story was less successful for me.

[erin_leigh_reads · Rating 5 out of 5]

Do you ever finish a book but are afraid to review it as it was so incredible you worry your review won’t do it justice? Well that’s exactly how I feel about writing a review for The Art of Her Life by @cynthianewberrymartin . The book was pure perfection and touched me like no other book has. I laughed, I cried and felt so many powerful emotions. I didn’t want the story to end.

Emily is a single mom of two young children and works in the world of art. In fact, Art has been her passion since she first fell in love with a Henri Matisse painting called Breakfast, at just 9 years old. Emily struggles to balance her life and all she has on her plate. She doesn’t really seem to value what she has until the threat that it will be taken away confronts her. What ensues is a beautiful, poetic story of motherhood, self discovery and the importance of love, friends and family.

Thank you so much to Cynthia Newberry Martin for sending me a copy of your beautiful book. I can honestly say The Art of Her Life is now my favourite book! I will cherish it for the precious piece of art that it is. Also thank you for introducing me to the art work of Henri Matisse! His paintings “Cat with Red Fish” and “Open Window” are my favourites. I give this book a rating of infinity ⭐️ stars as I just felt so connected to the characters, storyline and beautiful prose.

[Sophia Eck · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Art of Her Life is a quietly beautiful and slowly heartbreaking exploration of the ways in which art and artists that deeply touch us can follow us through our lives, providing something of a companion, a through-line in our lives, not alive, but enough to keep us breathing, in our roughest times. Our main character, Emily, has been in love with Henri Matisse and his work since she was a young girl, in particular the painting “Breakfast”, which she saw in person for the first and only time at nine years old, leaving with a postcard of this very work, a reproduction almost as priceless to her young self as the real thing. These days, a single mom to two cherished young girls of her own, having lost their father in an accident, a relationship that had passed long before he did, Emily finds herself lost in the painting of her own life, trying desperately to provide enough space on the canvas for herself, her daughters, her job as museum registrar, and her boyfriend, Mark, without it all becoming an overwhelming mess, feeling herself losing against time, unsure of what she wants the inside of the frame of her life to look like; when a museum contest offers her a chance to see “Breakfast” again, this possibility further overwhelms yet excites her, and we experience, through her struggles in figuring out how to live her life, her deep emotional attachment to Matisse, constantly providing her own problems with context in relation to his history and works, finding meaning in her grief in relation to, as the title says, “The Art of Her Life”. For anyone who has experienced this feeling of kinship a particularly personally touching piece of art provides, a fragment of yourself in this creation by an artist that couldn’t have ever known how it would endear itself to you, this book encapsulates that feeling in a myriad of forms, feelings, comforts. “A painter doesn’t see everything that he has put into his painting. It is other people who finds these treasures in it, one by one, and the richer a painting is in surprises of this sort, in treasures, the greater its author.” Like a painting, Emily, in her isolation of self as an act of self preservation, doesn’t realize the treasures in herself that those around her are begging to see, and love her for. Art so often provides itself at the right time, at the right place, somehow knowing exactly when we need it, need its unique familiarity even if we’ve never known of it before, even though we deeply wish it always had a role in our lives, we still recognize its power, it’s incomparable pricelessness. Emily, her daughters Caroline and Elizabeth, and her boyfriend Mark, are like Henri Matisse and his painting “Breakfast”, works of art, each their own, honest and laid bare, faced with reality and it’s quiet tragedies, persevering like these treasured paintings that were once hung out to dry, unaware of the ways in which they will each provide meaning, companionship, and comfort to others. The endless colors of our lives combine into their own individual paintings, and similar to the rare works that we cherish, inevitably escape our physical grasp but forever leave their marks on our souls, providing a combination of colors and strokes that show what lead us to where we are now and help to reflect where we are going. In art and in life, we must often surrender blindly in order to fully understand.

[Jan Mawdesley · Rating 5 out of 5]

Emily is somewhat afraid of life. She lives it by viewing life through colours of Matisse’s work Breakfast, a piece she fell in love with at the age of nine, captivated by the colours, the languid pose of the woman in the portrait.
Her reality is a busy working life as a single mother to two young daughters, an immersive position as Registrar of the local art gallery, were she desires to eventually become the Curator, and a partner, archaeologist Mark; a man who has been in her life since high school days.
There never seems to be enough time to do everything she desperately wants to do. When Mark is offered a position to head up an archeologic dig in Turkey, he proposes they marry, but Emily does not want to change her life at all, she is comfortable in her existence. She sees her world and threads around her in the colours of Matisse.
A health scare, appears to be of little consequence, Mark moves out of her life and that of the children’s, leaving a huge hole in what was Emily’s well-ordered existence. But, in a world gone grey, she is holding onto the very real hope that she will once again see the painting of Breakfast, as she is one of the short listed winners of a Competition held at the Art Gallery.
Brief notes from Mark are treasured by the children; Emily finds them confronting and when her Doctor advises her that the health scare appears to be far more than they first thought, Emily has to begin to face some of the very real truths of life, living and loving.
The Art of Her Life is stunning, very real, easily relatable story of a young woman who has been damaged by life, creating a world that almost but not quite works, the risk of emotional distress kept to a minimum. Emily could be anyone; the way she has been created by Cynthia Newberry Martin makes her a person who could very easily be a family member or friend.
Although the story took some time to evolve it has allowed the colours of life to develop gradually to form a beautiful, heartbreaking and unforgettable tale which reflects on people, the influence art in colour can have on emotion and how, at the end of the day, the things that matter the most are vastly different to the mundane nature of the life most often lived.
The Art of Her Life is an unforgettable work of art which captures the many hued colours of what we all consider as life!

[Jan · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Art of Her Life by Cynthia Newberry Martin was not quite what I expected. While it was a beautiful meditation on life, love, what we cherish, and how present we must be throughout our lives, it was also a reflection on how to die. On balance, I wished there was a bit less of that than how the character, Emily, developed as she grew into her life. I was not expecting the turn as it was written and I wish more of the book focused on art and Emily's life. But because the book was so well written with important things to think about, I gave it four stars.

There are two important things going on in this book. One is how Emily lives before and after she finds out she has late stage ovarian cancer and also about the transformative power of art.

When we are first introduced to Emily, she is a young widow (without much grief for her husband), mother of two very young daughters, has a lover who wants to marry her, and works at an art museum. She is all about the artist, Matisse— in both his paintings and his philosophy of life. She first saw his painting, Breakfast, when she was nine years old and it has been a guide post for her. The museum she works at his is holding an essay contest. The winners will have the opportunity to see the painting they've written about. The thought of seeing the original Breakfast again thrills her. This absorbs her as other threads of her life unravel.

Rudderless, Emily can't figure out what is important to her and her daughters, until the worst thing happens. The second half of the book is beautifully done but it is long and achingly sad, I wished that part had been shortened.

It was a beautiful read. Although, I know the principle message was how art can transform an ordinary life, the relationships Emily cultivated in her brief life were the true masterpieces.

Thank you Netgalley for the opportunity to read the ARC.

[Afra Binte Azad · Rating 5 out of 5]

"That night in the kitchen, working with reason alone, I told myself to feel nothing, and I let him go. So now I'll make my own happiness. I'll be like the woman in my painting— having a nice breakfast in her hotel room and then reading. Having a perfectly fine time by herself"
—The Art of Her Life

"The Art of Her Life" is an exquisite embodiment of poetic brilliance, deftly capturing an extraordinary penchant for life despite it's peculiar composition. The author meticulously summons the presence of Henry Matisse to illustrate this beautiful tragedy. In its core, it's a holy manifestation of the salvation of art. Throughout the entire novel, life is painted with spasms of catastrophe, juxtaposing the beauty of existence with the inherent cynicism of decay. "The Art of Her Life" vehemently accommodates Matisse's melancholic blue to capture the nuances of ordinary life. Not only that, the narration blatantly borrows colours of his palette to metaphorize the emotional complexities of the human experience. Within the tapestry of this novel, there's an overwhelming presence of comforting monotony but the harsh realities of life's vices are not completely glossed over. There are echoes of gnawing loneliness and grief. The narrative pulses with a poignant honesty, inviting readers to confront the spectrum of human emotions that define our existence. "The Art of Her Life" is undeniably a humbling experience for its readers, immersing them in a world of exquisite tragedy. While the promise of a conventional happy ending remains absent, this novel didn't fail to show the opulent beauty of mundane life.



My thanks to NetGalley and to Fomite publisher for giving me the opportunity to read "The Art of Her Life" by Cynthia Newberry Martin.

[Daniela · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ahh, this was a precious novel. It is proof that even simple stories can hold so much power and feeling when delivered right, as this one was: right, beautifully, and with the heart. It brought me to tears.

The title is very telling of the plot, so I won't go into details. What I'll say is that I loved to be drawn into art and its interpretation. Like, it made me realize I haven't really paid enough attention to hand-painted art; and I am ready and excited to rediscover it.

I might have been reading electronic pages, but what I saw was a live canvas, a burst of ever-changing colors, colors representing feelings, feelings that make up life.

And as if that weren't wonderful enough, the book is also an immersive experience. I diligently looked up each painting every time there was a mention of one. And out of all them, I think, same as Caroline, that my favorite one was Matisse's 𝘐𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘰𝘳 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘢 𝘠𝘰𝘶𝘯𝘨 𝘎𝘪𝘳𝘭.

Thank you, NetGalley, for the ARC in exchange for a review!

[Kathryn Jones · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Art of Her Life follows Emily, who has loved Matisse and his work since she was a child, and is now a harried, working single mother of two little girls. Even though she is perpetually exhausted, she lives a nice life, loved by her family and her best friend, who is committed and quite lovely. But he wants more and she is... perpetually exhausted and wanting time on her own like the woman in her favourite painting, Breakfast.

What follows is an emotional journey of Emily's life, gently reflecting on her struggles, life and death, and art. The story comes together as a work of art in itself.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Fomite for access to the ebook in exchange for an honest review.

[Ayesha · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thank you to NetGalley and the author for an eARC.


One of the best books I read this year, is something I’ll recommend. The title is self-explanatory in itself. It's a beautiful story about motherhood, insecure relationships, isolating oneself, and regret that follows later. Beautiful story. After reading this book I bought Cavier so I know what it tastes like. I always wanted it but for some reason never felt like paying for it. But I did it this time because I didn't want to die thinking about what it tasted like. Life is not certain, do whatever you want, spoil yourself, and don't die without getting answers to your what-ifs.

[Karen · Rating 5 out of 5]

A page-turning novel that follows Emily's journey though an unexpected twist in her life causing her, and those around her, to reevaluate all that is important them. The Art of Her Life is a story about hope, love, the memories we want to leave for our children and the power of art to transform. A beautiful story that you never want to end, and one that will have you viewing Matisse's work through a different lens.

[Chris · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is one of my favorite reads this year! I didn't want to put it down. The interplay of paintings and life happenings should make it a favorite for art lovers and readers of contemporary fiction. What an accomplishment this is in the life of an already much accomplished lady - wife, mother of 4 children, lawyer, French speaker and teacher! An inspiration to all of us!

[Ruby Reads · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a breathtaking book on Art, specifically, Matisse, longing, and a mother's life. I am a Cynthia Newberry Martin fan since her book, "Love Like This" which I highly recommend. "The Art of Her Life" is full of quiet reflections, that like the brush strokes in a painting, culminate in the larger masterpiece of one women's life. Highly recommended. Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC.

[Kate Edwards · Rating 4 out of 5]

I did not expect for this book to be as emotional as it was for me. The story is a reflection of love, family, and life. And it integrates art into all of these themes perfectly. I really enjoyed this book and I know I will continue to think about Emily and the other characters in this book for a long time. Thank you to NetGalley for this ARC!

[Melanie Faith · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another beautifully written, resonant novel by Cynthia Newberry Martin! This particular novel renders visual imagery and paintings that are interspersed with this poignant tale of love, love lost, illness, mortality, motherhood, archaeology, the art world, friendship, and so much more. Great characterization, too. I enjoyed looking up the paintings as they were mentioned in the lyrical prose.

[Susan · Rating 4 out of 5]

I gave this book a 3-star rating yesterday. That was based on the audio book. Today I'm bumping it up to 4 stars based on the book itself, the story, the characters. If the summary of this book sounds interesting to you, my recommendation would be for you to read it. Do not listen to it.

[Jodi Paloni · Rating 5 out of 5]

Compelling story and beautiful prose! My third novel from this author. Loved all the connections to the art world, particularly Matisse.

[Alex · Rating 5 out of 5]

inspiring. i cried.

[Y · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5

The ending couldn’t have been more perfect.

[Katherine Malmo · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the third book of Cynthia Newberry Martin's that I've read and they all hook me right away with characters that I can really relate to finding their way through adulthood in surprising and enlightening ways. I always finish her books feeling satisfied and as if I understand my own life a little differently because of it. This book does that exactly. While Emily is struggling, she's also a person finding hope and beauty in everyday life. Highly recommend.

[Jennifer · Rating 5 out of 5]

Edited to add: I had the honor of speaking with Cynthia Newberry Martin for the Storytime in Paris podcast after the below review was written and, if anything, I love the book more now. You can listen to the full interview here: https://bit.ly/3uTHgL4


What a beautiful, beautifully-written story! As a young child, Emily fell in love with the painting Breakfast by Henri Matisse and the love this painting has shaped, guided, and organized the way she views the world ever since. Through Emily's eyes, we learn the magic of art, the influence of color, and the power of connection.

This novel nestled into my heart, wrapped itself around, and stayed there like a gentle swaddle. While Emily struggles to open up to her long-time boyfriend Mark, while she pours herself into being the best mom to her two young girls, while she fights to keep a space for herself, while life unexpectedly unfolds, I was fully invested, reading along like I was her best friend rooting for her to come out on top.

I laughed, I cried. I cried, I cried.

As a note: this may also be the best, truest decpiction of children and of sisters I have ever read. Charlotte and Emily (6 and 3, I believe) read like they are the ages they are meant to be. The way they interact - the big sister/little sister dynamic - rang so true it was a relief to read. A balm to my big sister soul.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for an ARC in exchange for an honest review. It was truly a pleasure.

[talk lit get hit · Rating 4 out of 5]

bridget's review:

brb, just gotta wipe up the puddles of tears I left at the breakfast table.

thanks to netgalley and the publisher for the eARC.

The Art of Her Life left me crying at the breakfast table. The fragility of life, love, friendship and the mother-daughter relationship is explored in a heartbreakingly beautiful way. There were many quotes that took my breath away.