Vanessa and Her Sister - Tapa dura

Radiantly original . Irrepressible, with charm and brio to spare, Vanessa and Her Sister boldly invites us to that moment in history when famous minds sparked and collided, shaping the terrain of art and letters . Prepare to be dazzled (Paula McLain, author of The Paris Wife)

Priya Parmar is a powerful new voice in historical fiction. This novel explores the anguished relationship between the Stephen sisters and provides a new view of the artistic, sensual Bloomsbury world, placing Vanessa Bell at the heart of the story (Philippa Gregory)

Vanessa and Her Sister is the novel I didn't know I was waiting for and it is quite simply, astonishing ... Virginia's story is the one most often told, but it is Vanessa - the painter, observer, the woman struggling to balance her marriage and her art under the near-constant gimlet gaze of a younger sister willing to tip that balance - whose story this is. It is beautiful, wise and deft as a stroke upon the canvas (Sarah Blake, author of The Postmistress)

I loved this brilliant depiction of the true price of genius. Vanessa Bell glows at the heart of the Bloomsbury Group as she protects her sister, Virginia, even at the expense of her own happiness. Parmar's novel shines a bright light into the empty spaces between the lines of history (Helen Simonson, author of Major Pettigrew's Last Stand)

Vanessa and her Sister is an account of my grandmother's early life, told with faith, elegance and an almost uncanny insight into the subject. But this is also an absorbing work of fiction - and Priya Parmar has made Vanessa's story her own (Virginia Nicholson, author and granddaughter of Vanessa Bell)

With sparkling wit and insight, Priya Parmar sets us down into the legendary Bloomsbury household of the Stephen siblings, where sisters Vanessa and Virginia vie for love and primacy amidst a collection of eccentric guests . Vanessa and Her Sister kidnapped me for a couple of days. I couldn't put it down (Nancy Horan, author of Loving Frank and Under the Wide and Starry Sky)

A devoted, emotionally intense portrait of the Bloomsbury group (Kirkus)

It is billed as fiction, but one of the many joys of Priyar Parmar's Vanessa and Her Sister is that this brilliant epistolary novel reads as if this is a genuine and revelatory new take on Bloomsbury. The voice of Vanessa Bell rings true (Ion Trewin, Literary Director, Booker Prize Foundation)

Inventive, meticulously researched . The anchor and soul of the book is Vanessa's diary . The Bloomsbury Group were famous for their weekly salons, which were fuelled by intellectual discourse, banter and booze; in Parmar's story, you can almost hear the glasses tinkling (Good Housekeeping (US))

In her gossipy, entertaining historical novel about the British bohemians, Priya Parma conjures a devastating fictional portrait of one of those triangles . Based in fact but written with imaginative panache (USA Today)