Pentimenti is here

My literary debut novel is out now

After four years of working on my first literary novel Pentimenti: What we paint over, I’m thrilled to share with you that it is now available on Amazon (for now this will be the only platform, but I will evaluate other options in the near future).

This book wasn’t easy to write but I’m beyond excited to be able to share Philian’s story with you now. The idea found me in an ordinary moment — standing in my kitchen, suddenly holding the image of a painter trapped inside a comfortable, successful life he secretly believed was hollow.

Philian’s story is invented, but I won’t pretend none of me is in it: I had recently left an unfulfilling finance job, and I wanted to take full ownership of this book, which is why I chose to publish it independently. I talked about all of that — the origins, the doubts, the decision to self-publish — at more length in my pre-launch interview with my wonderful friend Shideh Mirashrafi, on her Substack Book, Coffee, Cat .

If you’re a reader interested in slow-burn, psychologically rich and deeply introspective narratives, this novel has been written with you in mind. I hope you will check it out!

What the book is about

In painting, pentimenti are the traces of earlier images: what the artist painted over but could not fully erase.

Years ago, Philian Kasik traded art school for a business degree, choosing stability and his family’s needs over his own passion and desire. But peace, he is now discovering, feels a lot like suffocation.

When an unwanted promotion traps him even deeper in corporate purgatory, he returns to the studio he has avoided since his daughter was born. There, he paints. What begins as a few hours of escape becomes an obsession. Fuelled by booze, sleepless nights, and a recurring nightmare of a young boy perched on a cliff, his technical control gives way to something raw and compulsive.

As what he excavates on the canvas grows darker, it begins to unsettle everything in his life: his marriage grows cold and avoidant; his daughter becomes secretive and drifts ever further away; and a professional relationship threatens to cross a boundary he never imagined crossing.

In the end, Philian must decide whether to hold on to the persona he has performed for years or reveal the one he painted over long ago.

What early readers are saying

Abha S. at Reedsy Discovery wrote:

Pentimenti is as enjoyable as it is volatile. Deeply unsettling in its familiarity, it captures the small selfishnesses and the quiet distortions we live by under the guise of convenience... I think the book is a necessary read to propel introspection and all the conversations we tend to avoid.

From a LoveReading Ambassador, as part of the Indie Books We Love selection:

Larissa Hahn has created an evocative story, one that explores the sense of identity and the changes that occur through the different stages of life... Pentimenti is an insightful exploration of life: the versions of ourselves we thought we’d be, the choices we make along the way and sometimes the fallout and consequences. It makes for engaging reading.

Where to read it

Pentimenti: What We Paint Over is available now in paperback and ebook.

Thank you for reading!

Larissa

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