Five-year-old Pinch loves his father, Bear, almost as much as he fears him. After Bear abandons their family, Pinch still worships him and spends his life striving to live up to the Bavinsky name.

Bear Bavinsky is an artist famous for painting vast canvases. Pinch, his son, was conceived while Bear cavorted around Rome in the early 1950s, and adores his father almost as much as he fears him. After Bear deserts his family, Pinch strives to make himself worthy of his father's attention -- first by becoming a painter himself, then by writing his father's biography. Eventually, a disillusioned Pinch settles into a job as an Italian teacher in London. When Bear dies, Pinch hatches an audacious scheme to secure his father's legacy and make his own mark on the world.

"A masterful novel that moves from Roman apartments to SoHo galleries to the South of France and tells the story of the son of a great painter striving to create his own legacy, by the bestselling author of THE IMPERFECTIONISTS. Rome, 1955. The artists gather for a picture at a party in an ancient villa. Bear Bavinsky, creator of vast canvases, larger than life, is at the centre of the picture. His wife, Natalie, edges out of the shot. From the side of the room watches little Pinch - their son. At five years old he loves Bear almost as much as he fears him. After Bear abandons their family, Pinch will still worship him, striving to live up to the Bavinsky name; while Natalie, a ceramicist, cannot hope to be more than a forgotten muse. Trying to burn brightly in his father's shadow, Pinch's attempts flicker and die. Yet by the end of a career of twists and compromises, Pinch will enact an unexpected rebellion that will leave forever his mark upon the Bear Bavinsky legacy. A masterful, o