The Talented Miss Farwell
Description
Becky Farwell is one of the most wickedly compelling characters I've read in ages -- a Machiavellian marvel, a modern Becky Sharp, a character to root for despite your better judgment -- and her story, both topical and timeless, will knock you off your feet. -- Rebecca Makkai, author of The Great Believers
Named a Best Book of Fall by Real Simple * USA Today * Entertainment Weekly * Harper's Bazaar * Crime Reads * Lithub * Alma * NJ.com
Catch Me If You Can meets Patricia Highsmith in this electrifying page-turner of greed and obsession, survival and self-invention that is a piercing character study of one unforgettable female con artist.
At the end of the 1990s, with the art market finally recovered from its disastrous collapse, Miss Rebecca Farwell has made a killing at Christie's in New York City, selling a portion of her extraordinary art collection for a rumored 900 percent profit. Dressed in couture YSL, drinking the finest champagne at trendy Balthazar, Reba, as she's known, is the picture of a wealthy art collector. To some, the elusive Miss Farwell is a shark with outstanding business acumen. To others, she's a heartless capitalist whose only interest in art is how much she can make.
But a thousand miles from the Big Apple, in the small town of Pierson, Illinois, Miss Farwell is someone else entirely--a quiet single woman known as Becky who still lives in her family's farmhouse, wears sensible shoes, and works tirelessly as the town's treasurer and controller.
No one understands the ins and outs of Pierson's accounts better than Becky; she's the last one in the office every night, crunching the numbers. Somehow, her neighbors marvel, she always finds a way to get the struggling town just a little more money. What Pierson doesn't see--and can never discover--is that much of that money is shifted into a separate account that she controls, "borrowed" funds used to finance her art habit. Though she quietly repays Pierson when she can, the business of art is cutthroat and unpredictable.
But as Reba Farwell's deals get bigger and bigger, Becky Farwell's debt to Pierson spirals out of control. How long can the talented Miss Farwell continue to pull off her double life?
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About the Author
Reviews
"The gritty underbelly of the art market and the pathology of decades of financial chicanery meet their delirious match in Tedrowe's Miss Farwell, who stands glaring up at the reader from the intersection of Hitchcock's Marnie and Highsmith's Ripley. Watch out for paper cuts."--Jonathan Lethem
Tedrowe has a talent for incrementally (and believably) stacking a house of cards and keeping readers wondering just how crazy things will get. The answer: way crazier than you'd expect for a small-town art lover.--Chicago Magazine
"Both light-hearted and deeply conflicted, Tedrowe's caper, with its Becky Sharp allusions, raises significant moral issues." --Booklist
The Talented Miss Farwell is utterly magnificent. Not since Tom Ripley have I fallen so hard for a con artist...Becky Farwell is an unforgettable character. She is the beating heart of this spellbinding page-turner about art, greed, and self-invention.--Cristina Alger, New York Times bestselling author of Girls Like Us
If ever you are looking for a book to provide an escape from your own reality, I heartily recommend Emily Gray Tedrowe's The Talented Miss Farwell. Becky Farwell is the most sympathetic, art-collecting, money-laundering villain I have ever encountered. She literally bleeds her hometown dry -- the empty swimming pools of Pierson are heartbreaking -- and yet somehow, I loved her. --Marcy Dermansky, author of Very Nice
Becky Farwell is one of the most wickedly compelling characters I've read in ages -- a Machiavellian marvel, a modern Becky Sharp, a character to root for despite your better judgment -- and her story, both topical and timeless, will knock you off your feet.--Rebecca Makkai, author of The Great Believers
Perfectly executed...Tedrowe does a spectacular job of demonstrating the mindset of a character who justifies her criminal activity while believing she's ultimately good.--Publishers Weekly (starred review)
"Sharp, darkly comedic, and full of fascinating facts about the art world."--CrimeReads
A read-it-to-believe-it page-turner about a con artist whose luck can't last.--Real Simple
Riveting. ... With Becky Farwell, Tedrowe has created one of the year's most fascinating, complex, nuanced characters.--Medium
