Review: Let Me Tell You About A Man I Knew

Vincent Van Gogh's painting, Landscape with Couple Walking and Crescent Moon, becomes the starting point for Susan Fletchers novel Let Me Tell You About A Man I Knew.

A painting with a mystery at its heart is fertile soil for a novelist – the outstanding example, of course, being The Girl With A Pearl Earring. Now, a lesser known work by Vincent van Gogh is the subject of Susan Fletcher’s beautifully realised speculation. Landscape With Couple Walking And Crescent Moon now hangs in Sao Paulo but is available to see if you Google it. It depicts what seems to be a typical Provencal landscape with van Gogh’s instantly recognisable swirly olive trees but is gentler in tone and execution than some of his other Provencal landscapes.

It is also unusual in that it features a couple in the centre foreground. The man, with his fiery red hair, is clearly van Gogh. The question that intrigued Susan Fletcher is, “Who is the woman?”