Tulip Fever, by Deborah Moggach (Vintage, £6.99 in UK)

In the early 17th century Amsterdam is gripped by a passion for tulips. Bulbs are bought, sold and speculated upon; fortunes are made and lost on a single transaction. In the house of the wealthy (and elderly) merchant Cornelis Sandvoort, however, all is elegance and calm as he and his beautiful young bride, Sophia, pose for a portrait by the up-and-coming painter Jan van Loos - until Sophia and Jan embark on a passionate affair. Deborah Moggach brings a 20th-century sensibility to this historical tale, and the book itself, though brief, is beautifully illustrated with colour reproductions of Dutch paintings of the sort Jan van Loos might have produced, had he existed, giving an eerie air of hyper-realism to the entire enterprise.