My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Anyone looking to escape into Paris’s past can’t go wrong with The Sixth, the new offering from Avery Hays (the collaboration of A. M. D. Hays and W. S. T. Hays). The title refers to a district on the bohemian Left Bank which in 1910 housed many of modern art’s collectors and creative spirits.
Displaced from her native Portugal, her beloved father imprisoned by a despotic King, Florbela Sarmentos arrives in Paris ready to embark on her artistic career. But 1910 is a turbulent year and soon Florbela must confront more than the rise of modern art, ardent suitors and the absinthe-fuelled parties of this new world. She is pulled into a web of intrigue that may help free her homeland from tyranny – if she can stay alive long enough to do what she must.
Told in a memoirist style by the protagonist, Florbela’s life in La Ruche – the actual abode of Modigliani, Rivera and Chegall (to name a few) – provides insight into the modern art movement. These secondary characters are well-fleshed and Hays blends them effortlessly into Florbela’s story; there are some wonderfully realised scenes as Florbela is drawn into the licentious world of these brilliant free spirits. The mystery surrounding Florbela’s roommate offers plenty of intrigue until the danger ramps up with the murder of a close friend and confidante of her father’s. Some of the pace is lost as the story stays true to a realistic timeline, and there are moments where the greater mystery becomes obscured by Florbela’s concerns with her art, her suitors and her enigmatic roommate. This is natural enough from the point of view of the narrator – a twenty-one year-old who has lived a largely sheltered life.
The Sixth enthrals from the very first page. Florbela is a strong-willed and decisive heroine and the inclusion of real and important figures from the art world add delight to a beautifully written story.