An interesting concept that was bogged down by unnecessary details and flat characters. I really did appreciate how art and design was discussed but once it made it to the actual “meat” of the story, I was already bored. The characters were one sided and a bit silly. His wife left him because she was jealous of a painting? Seriously? This book like staring at a wooden plank.

ended up absolutely loving this book. shoutout to the rory gilmore reading challenge for another banger

While the concept of this book was fascinatingly cool to me, the transitions through time were jumpy and hard to follow, still a cool novel though

A wonderful book about Italy, love, art history and time travel.

The idea behind this novel is excellent- an art restorator falls in love with a woman in a Renaissance painting, then finds himself transported back to her time. However, as much as I enjoyed the premise of the story, I was dissatisfied with how the author developed it. Something about his writing style didn't click with me, and I couldn't get past the knowledge that this was a fictional story. Somehow, I just didn't feel like I was in the Renaissance with flesh-and-blood characters. I also didn...

Ok, yet another book in which I was excited about the concept and wholly disappointed by the delivery. Mr. McKean is not a bad writer; each of the individual scenes in the book are very well written, very sensory accessible and it's obvious he's done a lot of research and/or knows a lot about many many different topics. The problem is that he doesn't string those great scenes together into a flowing, coherent narrative. There's no story. I mean, I get the plot: Art restorer falls in love with pa...

In general, I enjoyed this tale of time-travel and art history set in modern-day New York City and fifteenth-century Tuscany. The glimpses behind the scenes of the art world are interesting, the story of Matt's obsession with a woman depicted in an old painting is very romantic and intriguing, and there's just enough danger thrown in to keep everything mysterious and exciting. But I sometimes had trouble with the time-warp elements of the story – the main character would just suddenly fade out o...

This is a beautifully written book. James McKean really paints pictures with words and gorgeously turned phrases. This is the story of Matt O'Brien, who restores art for the Metropolitan Museum of Art. When he comes upon a badly darkened painting tucked in the corner of the Met's archives, he has no idea how important it will become. A young woman, whom he names, "Anna" (good choice, man!) begins to emerge from the years of grime and mistreatment. But what is astonishing is that it seems to him ...

A noteworthy first attemptExpert violinmaker, McKean, ventures into new territory with his ambitious debut novel, Quattrocento - a story of fine art and love, cleverly disguised as time-travel conceit.At the heart of the story is Matt O’Brian, an art restorer at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, who struggles with the realization that he has revealed a never before discovered quattrocento* masterpiece by Leonardo da Vinci; a painting of a beautiful young woman, who O’Brian names “Anna”. The painti...

So. Usually I open a book with a completely open mind. But not this book. This book, I was bound and determined to like. And I did like it - good story concept, and it kept me reading until the very end (even during period breaks of an NHL game, it held my interest). But it has some flaws, too.The concept is great - an assistant curator and art restorer at the Met finds a portrait that he knows is something special and as he spends hours restoring it, he falls in love with the subject of the por...