The Afterlives of Doctor Gachet tells the story of Paul Ferdinand Gachet, the subject of one of Vincent van Gogh s most famous portraits: one that shows what the artist called the heartbroken expression of our times . But what caused such heartbreak? What is the real story of that mournful man in the painting? This thrilling historical novel follows the life of Doctor Gachet from asylums to art galleries, from the bloody siege of Paris to heartbreak at home, from the fashionable salons of the city to his final retirement in the countryside in Auvers where he became van Gogh’s doctor for the last few weeks of the artist’s life. It also follows his afterlife in the mysterious portrait that van Gogh made of him, from the bunkers of Nazi Germany to becoming the most expensive painting ever sold, from being smuggled to America in a suitcase to being bought by a reclusive billionaire in Tokyo, until the painting finally disappeared at the end of the last century. The novel explores where sadness grows from, and travels across decades and continents to uncover the secrets behind that famous grief-stricken smile.