Thank you to the publisher for allowing me to read and review this ARC. Full review to be found on Goodreads and on my website.

Noah Glass is a complex read about loyalty and family - I really enjoyed this one. Medium paced ~ I liked the characters and the art aspect of the story a lot.

I just couldn’t get into this book. I was intrigued by the premise of two siblings diving into the world of Italian art to search for answers about their late father’s involvement in the stealing of an expensive sculpture. But the characters were so unmemorable and bland, and so I couldn’t find my footing in this character-driven novel. Unless you’re a huge fan of Italian art (and even then, maybe still), I would skip this.

Exquisite writing but the plot wasn’t for me. A little too much art and self-reflection without quite enough pace. In the end I put it down and walked away.

As my third read on the 2019 Miles Franklin Shortlist, this has been my favorite read so far.

While I anticipated a mystery and investigation into an art world crime, what delivered was an exploration of grief and the connections within the Glass family. I think it was really well written and for the most part, well paced. I think it over-reaches in parts and didn’t deliver on all aspects of the plot - there were some inclusions that felt like they weren’t fully interrogated and explored (the leprosy colony, for example - which the author’s note expressly mentions).

While I wanted a little more to close out this narrative, my major curiosities about the crime and Noah’s story particularly were rounded out decently. I think the threads with the two siblings needed a little more development at the end as much of their individual narratives were lacking for me (the significance of Benjamin, for example). Overall, a solid read.

I see the appeal in this book - it's well written, with great characters and an interesting plot - but it just didn't grab me in the way I thought it would. All the elements were there, and I absolutely flew through it, but I never really engaged with it or thought about it afterwards.

‘Martin asked Evie to tell him about Noah’s theories of painting and time…. He heard “multiplicity, not unity”; he heard “co-presence of the finite and the infinite”; he heard her say something about serial time giving way to curves and bending motions. He could understand nothing.’

Ekphrasis: a literary device in which a painting, sculpture, or other work of visual art is described. That’s what struck me about this compelling, well-written novel about the Glass family. Noah Glass, late 60s and an art history scholar, is found dead, floating in the swimming pool of his apartment complex. After the funeral his two children, Evie – who has been drifting aimlessly and now works in a bookstore – and Martin – an artist – are asked to come to the local police station where Detective Malone informs them that Noah was a suspect in an art theft, where a statue has gone missing from Sicily. This, then, is the basic premise and Martin takes it upon himself to travel out to Palermo to seek answers for himself.

The novel is structured in a subtle way that overlays time and place; it switches between Evie in Sydney, now working as a visual film-interpreter for a blind client called Benjamin, for whom she starts to have romantic feelings, and Martin in Palermo as he uncovers secrets and lies in the Sicilian capital, getting involved in the life of his father’s former mistress and the local mafia. A third strand takes us back in time to Noah’s life and how he came to be involved with Dora Caselli. These shifts are expertly done by Gail Jones, as events, location and even the weather allow her to make connections – as the opening extract says, time giving way to curves. If it is raining when we are in Evie’s chapters, then it is also raining in Palermo in Martin’s; as Martin leaves a café so too, in the next chapter, does Noah leave a café 30 years earlier. And throughout the book there are the paintings, each of which add layers of meaning and detail to the story. I have to say I did find myself being distracted and having to go off to look up images of each work of art mentioned, but that allows you time to absorb the meanings and connections.

This is a subtle exploration of grief, of loss and of two lost souls – Evie and Martin – trying to rebuild lives that, even before their father’s death, had been broken. Events cause them to recover childhood memories, there is mention of Martin’s previous drug problems, and Martin has to also come to terms with his failed marriage. Two of the minor characters – Benjamin, and Martin’s daughter Nina – are, perhaps, less subtle: he is blind, she is deaf, both somehow being a metaphor for being closed off from something. When Nina is given cochlear implants, she is terrified of this sudden, alien world: ‘the thunder of surround sound’. I say ‘less subtle’ for, while it’s clear what Jones is trying to say, it just seems a little too obvious compared to the intricacies of the rest of the book. Almost unnoticed, the book shifts in the last chapter to the present tense – I have to admit I missed this at first – and the ending is suitably ambiguous, as Martin and Evie ponder their new lives: ‘”I don’t know,” says Evie, in response to his question. “Non lo so.”’ But we don’t know what his question was, and we don’t get an answer. We, like the characters, are left on the edge of an uncertain future.

Gail Jones deserves to be better known, and this is a well-crafted, beautifully written meditation on art, life and relationships. 4 excellent stars.

(With thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for an ARC of this title.)

This was a great book with a fascinating premise. I was expecting a literary mystery and I think that this is what the author, Gail Jones, delivered. "The Death of Noah Glass" was peppered with some fabulous writing and I found it quite engaging for the most part, anyway. I found the pacing a little slow, The story of strained family relations and death were very interesting and the plot itself was brilliantly executed.

The book was more about emotions, there was less dialogue than I normally prefer and it was very descriptive, Each characters' actions were explained in extreme detail, which I appreciated.

Overall, I think that "The Death of Noah Glass" was a very enjoyable and worthwhile read. Rating: 4 stars.

I received a complimentary digital copy of this novel, at my own request, from Text Publishing via NetGalley. This review is my own unbiased opinion.

This book is about two children dealing with their father's death and discovering that maybe he wasn´t the man they thought he was. I liked that in this book the crime seemed to matter less than the children thinking that they didn't know their father, the person who raised them alone after their mother's death and taught them about the importance of art.
For lovers of art, this book is amazing, with Italy being heavily featured with plenty of art discussions throughout the book as well as a commentary on all the ways art can be enjoyed.
Thank you to NetGalley and Text Publishing for this ARC.

The marketing of "The Death of Noah Glass" suggests a literary mystery, and while there is a puzzle nestled in the book’s pages, this novel produces few thrills. Rather it’s a nuanced, immersive journey with a son and a daughter of an art historian suddenly found dead in a pool. The languorous (in a good way) narrative splits between Sydney and Palermo, and the interspersed back story of Noah Glass fills out the details. All three characters are complex, worthy individuals tossed around by their natures and by fate, and Gail Jones, a splendid writer, delves deep into their natures. Locales are vividly drawn. If the plot offers more, in the way of thrillerly thrills, than it promises, that highlights the gentleness of “The Death of Noah Glass,” a reflectiveness that is memorable.

While Noah Glass's two adult children are still making funeral plans and coming to terms with the sudden death of their father, the police arrive to let them know that he is suspected of having stolen an Italian statue. Noah Glass was an art historian and he had recently been in Palermo, but his area of expertise was far removed from the relatively recent sculpture and his personal views made such an accusation unthinkable to his children. Evie, who has traveled to Sydney from her home in Melbourne and is staying in her father's apartment, isn't interested in the subject, but Martin, a divorced father and artist, can't get it out of his mind. So he goes to Palermo, determined to find answers.

This novel takes each of the three characters, Noah, Evie and Martin, and spends alternating chapters with each of them as they are pulled into environments that challenge and stretch them, even as they come to terms with the past. This is a quiet, but gorgeously told story of family. Gail Jones's writing here reminded me of Anne Tyler's best work, with its tight focus on family ties and reliance on good writing and complex and nuanced characters to tell the story.

A literary novel a beautiful emotional novel.A dead father children left to mourn an art theft comes to light a theft that involves their recently deceased father,A mesmerizing heart wrenching read. #netgalley #text publishing.

I loved this atmospheric novel with broken but beautiful characters and gorgeous plot which features beautiful imagery and bits of art history.
Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for letting me review this book

Evie and Martin are grieving after the death of their father when they learn he has been implicated in the theft of a piece of art.

Thank you NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Perhaps because I'm not an artistic person, I couldn't appreciate the fact that someone could be murdered for it. its evident the author is very artistic as the words read more as prose than anything else. However, the story did keep me interested in the book and kept me committed to finishing it.

“As she stood on the deck of the ferry at Circular Quay, Evie was conscious of storing up things for future recollection. Here was the lustily gleaming harbour, the absurdly golden midday, and the bridge, swinging away like a door on brass hinges as the ferry executed a slow turn. Above was an infinity of blue-becoming-black reaching far into space, almost shocking after the grey security of Melbourne. The scale of things was all wrong, too lavish, too sunny, too geared to applause.”

The Death Of Noah Glass is the seventh novel by award-winning Australian author, Gail Jones. When sixty-seven-year-old art historian, Noah Glass is found face-down, fully clothed in the swimming pool of his Elizabeth Bay apartment block, the coroner rules it a heart attack. But the day after the funeral, his children are told that Noah was the suspect in an art theft. The Carabinieri Cultural Heritage Protection Agency in Sicily have advised Sydney detective Frank Malone that a national treasure, a small bust of Eleonora Ragusa sculpted by Vincenzo Ragusa, has been stolen from a gallery in Palermo. Noah had returned from Sicily just four weeks previous.

But Martin and Evie are dismissive: their father’s field of interest was quattrocento painting; he had no interest in sculpture at all. While Evie is meant to be sorting out Noah’s apartment, Martin goes to Palermo to see what he can find out. But when he gets there, he is frustrated by his father’s Italian colleagues: absent, reticent, vague. And his artistic soul is soon distracted by what he sees around him.

“We have just endured, she thought, the funeral of our father and my brother is still as he was, negligent, self-centred, without a clue. He is still the cocksure adolescent bound for fame and glory, still contesting his father’s authority. They were so alike, father and son, that they loved each other in self-confirmation. The equation of what they were was a tangled knot.”

For both of them, their grief is ever present, and they are constantly reminded of their singular but loving upbringing by this good man, respected by all. They connect again, skyping to remind each other: “Martin still envied her canny poise, the way she made her own knowledge, sagely and systematically, always locating a hidden order. Their disorderly lives had needed this incongruity – her lists and his images, her calm, withholding quiet and his noisier rebellion. He saw it now, her aisles of mysterious space, mapped alphabetically step by step, while his gestures were rooms, broad openings on either side. Still, they fitted together; still, they were complements.”

Four narrative strands tell the story: Martin and Evie perspective detail events after Noah’s death, while Noah’s story of his stay in Sicily is supplemented by descriptions of significant life events from his childhood onwards. While there is certainly a mystery, this novel is very much character-driven, and the relationships between the siblings and their closeness to their father, shown in common memories and habits are the strength of the story.

The descriptions of the two cities (Sydney, Palermo) with which Jones suffuses her text are highly evocative and show her captivation with these places. The depth of her research is apparent with the inclusion of information about art, about the theft of Italian artworks and about Western Australia’s leprosarium. Marvellous and moving, a superb read.
This unbiased review is from an uncorrected proof copy provided by NetGalley and Text Publishing

When Martin and Evie discover that their art historian father has been found drowned in the pool at his Sydney apartment, not only do they have to cope with their loss but are then faced with the shock of discovering that he is a suspect in an art theft. As they delve deeper into the mystery, they are also forced to examine and reassess their relationship with their father, and although on one level this is indeed a crime novel with an intriguing plot, at its heart it is an exploration of family, parents and children, expectations and disappointments. Well-crafted and well-paced, beautifully written with insight and thoughtfulness, I found this an absorbing and compelling novel and I very much enjoyed it.

4.5 stars. I so enjoyed this story with its stunning prose, beautiful and dreamy imagery and deeply touching story of three grief-stricken lost souls looking for meaning through love and art. While the plot sagged a bit in the middle for me, overall this was an enchanting read and I highly recommend it to lovers of literary fiction.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the chance to read and review this novel.

Literary ~ Gentle ~ Weighty

tl;dr: Adult children learn their father might have been an art thief after his death.

Being an adult child is a bit like double exposure, all your childhood standing with your adult self. Your parents remain your parents, and in this book, the baggage sticks with you. Noah Glass is an academic, described fairly stereotypically, as measured and interior. After death, his children learn he has been implicated in a crime. Art history is a large part of my professional life and career, and I have a particular love for the Quattrocento, the field of Italian art that Noah Glass studied. This book isn't really about art history, though there are moments the art historian might see allusions to art. Mostly, this book is about the secrets we often keep from our families and how that affects our relationships with them. On that level, this book is strong, with beautifully described characters, especially Noah's wounded son.

3.5

Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

The description for this book leads a reader to expect a literary mystery. Two adult siblings trying to figure out whether their father, who has recently passed away, was potentially involved in an art theft. And in theory the book delivers on both accounts, it’s highly literary and there is something of a mystery to unravel. But, sadly, it didn’t really work for me on either account. Which isn’t to say it wasn’t a good book, objectively it was, it featured some genuinely great writing, linguistic flights of fancy, first rate word crafting, really. But for something with such an intriguing premise and such obvious narrative skill, the book didn’t engage at all. In fact, it maintained a certain emotional distance throughout that combined with the slow, plodding at times, actually, writing made for a meditative, pensive read that came across as distinctly monotonous and unexciting. Not that a story of strained family relations and death ought to be especially exciting, but this was plot wise practically an international suspense thriller and it just didn’t thrill at all. And thriller aspect aside, purely as a drama it was also something of a drag. It never veered into tedium, but it lurked near the fence. To be fair, it’s entirely possible I wasn’t in the right mood for it…see, I am totally looking for excuses, because I intellectually recognize a work of quality, but emotionally this just did nothing for me. Which is ironic or something like that, because the book is all about emotions, it’s under dialogued and heavily descriptive, Every action of every character is analyzed and explained. There is such coherency of intent behind it all, but not much to really grab readers and make them care. Very peculiar. Such a smart book, rendered with great meticulousness and care and terrific language, but didn’t really sing for me. I appreciated it, but the tone and the pacing alone made it difficult to love. Nevertheless, it’s always nice to read some proper literature plus it kind of sort of counts as international reading…Australian author, international settings and so on. Thanks Netgalley.