Rebecca Wentworth's Distraction

Hailed by Annie Proulx in the New York Times as a gifted writer with an extraordinary feeling for the past, Robert J. Begiebing now completes his trilogy of American historical novels that also includes The Strange Death of Mistress Coffin and The Adventures of Allegra Fullerton. Daniel Sanborn, trained in the academies of London, arrives in colonial Portsmouth, New Hampshire to establish himself as a portraitist. His very first commission, however--to paint the adopted daughter of a prominent local family--will challenge his most cherished beliefs about art and life. Mysterious and solemn, twelve-year-old Rebecca Wentworth reveals herself to be an artistic prodigy of incandescent genius, and the victim of bizarre, disturbing visions. Her family, confused and frightened by the girl's uncanny talent and strange paintings, has decided to send her away for her own protection. Sanborn, however, becomes fascinated by Rebecca and her gifts. Confident, accomplished, and reassuringly conventio