How to Be Both

The novel is told from two perspectives. George is a pedantic sixteen-year-old in present-day Cambridge, struggling to come to terms with the sudden death of her mother while looking after her younger brother. Francesco del Cossa is an Italian Renaissance artist who painted a series of frescoes at the Palazzo Schifanoia in Ferrara, which George once travelled to see with her mother. Two versions of the book were published at the same time, one beginning with George’s story and the other with Francesco’s.