Book excerpt: After ten years, a successful painter returns to Paris and the son she left behind on her ex-lover’s doorstep, in Margery Sharp’s sparkling novel that features the artistic heroine of Martha in Paris After studying with le maître in Paris for a year, Martha returned to England to pursue her artistic destiny. Ten years later, she is an enormous success. But when she returns to Paris to attend an exhibition of her work, she must face some unfinished business she left behind: her ten-year-old son, George. Raised by his doting grandmother and his disinterested father, Eric, George attends his mother’s exhibition and Martha realizes she may well have met her match—a member of the opposite sex who will not let her go through life unencumbered. Martha, Eric, and George is a witty and poignant novel about the indelible bond between mother and child, and the creative spark that can light up a life.