Maggie O’Farrell, The Marriage Portrait (Tinder Press 2022)

First line: Lucrezia is taking her seat at the long dining table, which is polished to a watery gleam and spread with dishes, inverted cups, a woven circlet of fir.

Maggie O’Farrell’s The Marriage Portrait is one of the most satisfying novels I’ve ever read. O’Farrell takes her inspiration from a snippet from history — the mysteriously brief life of Lucrezia di Cosimo de’ Medici (1545-1561) — and Robert Browning’s 1842 poem ‘My Last Duchess’, which suggests that Lucrezia was murdered by her husband, the Duke of Ferrara. The resulting novel is an outstanding example of literary crime.

Figuring out whether or not Lucrezia was murdered involves a deep dive into the sixteenth-century court life of Medici Florence and the paradoxical status of aristocratic girls like Lucrezia. In many ways ultra-privileged, they also led incredibly constrained lives, their primary role being to boost the status of their families through advantageous matches and the production of heirs. Pawns in the power plays of their fathers and husbands, they had very little say in their own destinies. Lucrezia finds solace in her love of drawing and painting — just one of the ways O’Farrell brings this unusual, spirited young woman to life as she seeks to survive her highly dangerous marriage.

The Marriage Portrait is one of my books of the year thus far — I loved its ingenuity, its clever construction and its heart. Highly recommended.

Justine Triet (dir.), Anatomy of a Fall (2023)

Many thanks to blog reader Vicky, who recommended this Palme d’Or winner to me. As it happens, Anatomy of a Fall complements The Marriage Portrait perfectly, for it also explores a marriage, albeit one with a very different power dynamic. Here, wife Sandra Voyter appears to have the upper hand: she’s a hugely successful author, while her husband, Samuel Maleski, struggles to write and is the primary carer for their visually impaired son Daniel. When Samuel is found dead outside their isolated Grenoble chalet, the police suspect Sandra of having been involved. Did Samuel fall from the window of the attic room he was renovating? Or was he pushed? And just how reliable a witness is Sandra, the consummate and highly inventive storyteller?

The film soon turns into a gripping legal drama, and I found myself fascinated by the depiction of French court procedure, which enables the defendant to be questioned alongside witnesses (an approach that creates illuminating ‘dialogue’ between different witness statements). There’s top-notch acting here from Sandra Hüller (Sandra) and Milo Machado Graner (Daniel). Border collie Messi, who plays family pet Snoop, is also a genuine star, and left Cannes with the coveted Palme Dog 🙂

I’ve featured the German film poster above. I especially like the German title Anatomie eines Falls because the noun ‘der Fall’ can variously mean ‘fall’, ‘event’ or investigative ‘case’. The original French title is Anatomie d’une chute. ‘Chute’ also has a range of evocative meanings, such as ‘fall’, ‘downfall’ and ‘collapse’.

Only Murders in the Building, Season 1 (Disney+ 2021)

I’m late to the party, but am enjoying the antics of amateur sleuths Charles, Oliver and Mabel as they look into the murder of one of their neighbours in the affluent Arconia Building on New York’s Upper West Side. The characterization of the three leads — played by Selena Gomez, Steve Martin, and Martin Short respectively — is sparky and wry. So is the production, which gleefully harnesses podcast conventions: for what else would a fading actor, washed-up theatre director and aspiring interior designer do these days other than create a podcast called Only Murders in the Building? It’s all very meta, and despite a few goofy moments that stretch credulity, is an entertaining way to unwind at the end of a long day. There are cameos from the likes of Sting, Tina Fey and Jane Lynch, and the latest season features Meryl Streep. Great fun.