Review: The Night Portrait

I was really, really looking forward to The Night Portrait. Laura Morelli is a new to me author and her latest novel was just published today. I wanted to love it. But...I didn't. I think the idea Morelli came up with is a very interesting one but at the end of the day, I was pretty bored.

Here's the synopsis:

Milan, 1492: When a 16-year old beauty becomes the mistress of the Duke of Milan, she must fight for her place in the palace—and against those who want her out. Soon, she finds herself sitting before Leonardo da Vinci, who wants to ensure his own place in the ducal palace by painting his most ambitious portrait to date.

Munich, World War II: After a modest conservator unwittingly places a priceless Italian Renaissance portrait into the hands of a high-ranking Nazi leader, she risks her life to recover it, working with an American soldier, part of the famed Monuments Men team, to get it back. 

Two women, separated by 500 years, are swept up in the tide of history as one painting stands at the center of their quests for their own destinies.

The main thing I didn't like about this book was how much was going on. The synopsis makes it seem like it's just focused on two women: Cecilia, who is the mistress of the Duke of Milan in the 15th century, and Edith, a woman trapped by duty who, starting in 1939, is watching priceless art land in the hands of Nazis. But. It's not. The chapters alternate between the women as well as Leonardo da Vinci (whose chapters, weirdly, were the only ones told in first person and I can't understand why) whose timeline closely follows Cecilia's (but not exactly) and Dominic, an American soldier who we first meet as he's about to storm the beaches of Normandy in 1944.

That's a lot of main characters to keep track of.

Timelines eventually converge but it took a long time to figure out how on earth Edith and Dominic's points of view would come together. I can understand that Dominic was needed to show how the soldiers were trying to protect the artwork the Monuments Men were recovering. That was, honestly, why I wanted to read the book. I find that part of history both intriguing and heartbreaking. How could so many pieces of art be whisked across Europe? Hidden and stowed away? Stolen from their rightful owners? How many pieces still haven't made their way back to their home country? I don't know if I was just done with the story by the time the recovery was really taking place or I wanted to Edith to have more agency in the resistance efforts, but I couldn't quite find the emotions I think Morelli wants the readers to have. 

What I did appreciate was the depiction of everyday Germans and how it would have been so difficult to stand up to the war and what Hitler was doing. It's also a kind of sobering reflection of what's happening in the world today. Sometimes you have to wonder if generations from now will look back, like we do regarding the Holocaust, and wonder...why didn't anyone stop it? I think we forget sometimes that there were a lot of people who didn't believe in the war but were powerless to do anything about it.

It seems like, so far, I'm in the minority when it comes to The Night Portrait. Laura Morelli's latest novel is getting high praise from many folks. It's not a winner for me but I'm glad others found it interesting.

*An egalley of this novel was provided by the publisher, HarperCollins Canada, in exchange for review consideration. All opinions are honest and my own.*