I don't know when I first became fascinated by Peggy Guggenheim but whenever her name is mentioned, I'm agog. Yet I know so little about her! I was eager to read this novel, then, telling her early life and what led to her becoming the renowned art collector. It's told by two writers as Rebecca Godfrey sadly died before finishing it. 

Peggy is fourteen when her father dies on the Titanic. The youngest daughter of two Jewish dynasties, she had led a protected, cocooned life and now all is disrupted and unsettled. She is nevertheless determined and independent and seeks to forge her own particular path in life.  

Tragedy is never far away, however, with broken relationships and the sudden deaths of close family members. This with the backdrop of societal changes and war in Europe.

But Peggy negotiates the decadent, sexist and anti-Semetic art worlds of New York and Paris. Ultimately we meet her in Venice 1958 where she has finally found contentment and a belief in the transformative power of art. 

This is a mesmerising life story told in a very distinctive and intriguing style. It's certainly made me want to investigate Peggy Guggenheim in more detail.