Writing historical fiction always requires research, not just about the big events, but about the little details too. I set out to write The Jewel Thief because I love books that center on art and because I am fascinated by the history of the Hope Diamond, and the many gaps in that history which I explore further in the sequel, The Diamond Keeper. I did a great deal of research into the lives of artists of all kinds in the reign of Louis XIV and the role of art and artists in the politics of Europe through the ages. Art has been at the center of great lives for centuries.
Her story begins… Louis XIV has commanded his crown jeweler to cut the world’s largest blue diamond—to make shine like the sun. But the task proves impossible, driving Jean Pitau to drink and leaving his daughter, Juliette to find a way to shape the diamond and save her father.
Her story resumes... in a cold, dark cell of the Bastille prison. Charged with stealing the King's diamond, Juliette has but one chance to redeem herself, or hang. Though, death wouldn't be her worst fate. Because recording Juliette's confession is René, a court-appointed scribe, and the man she loves. But René holds his own grudge against Juliette, and this is her one and only chance to win back his heart.
Your first love is always special, right? This is the book that made me discover how wonderful a fictionalized story behind a familiar piece of art could be.
I loved how personal and meaningful the story was—how it gave life not just to the artist, but to the beautiful, unknown girl whose face is so familiar to us. It is the perfect mix of historical fact and fiction so well blended that the reader can’t tell where one stops and the other starts.
Chevalier has other books along a similar vein, but this one still stands as the best. (And a movie with Colin Firth and Scarlett Johansson is a bonus; you can talk about it with your non-reading friends. But better yet, get them the book.)
The New York Times bestselling novel by the author of A Single Thread and At the Edge of the Orchard
Translated into thirty-nine languages and made into an Oscar-nominated film, starring Scarlett Johanson and Colin Firth
Tracy Chevalier transports readers to a bygone time and place in this richly-imagined portrait of the young woman who inspired one of Vermeer's most celebrated paintings.
History and fiction merge seamlessly in this luminous novel about artistic vision and sensual awakening. Girl with a Pearl Earring tells the story of sixteen-year-old Griet, whose life is transformed by her brief encounter with genius . .…
This book masterfully moves between different time periods, the stories of modern museum staff, art dealers and forgers of 30 years earlier, and the life of a little-known Dutch master intertwine into an intricate story that will keep you turning pages.
Like my book, it also explores the roles of women artists in an era where they were marginalized. History has tried to erase women artists and scholars, but if we scratch beneath the surface, we can find them. This book is a nice exploration of what a woman artist’s life would have been during the Dutch Renaissance, and what their work can reveal to us today.
It’s also a great story, full of suspense, intrigue, and the complexity of love and life.
'. . . worthy of comparison to Tracy Chevalier's Girl with a Pearl Earring and Donna Tartt's The Goldfinch . . . A masterly, multilayered story that will dazzle readers.' Library Journal (starred review)
In 1631, Sara de Vos is admitted to the Guild of St. Luke in Holland as a master painter, the first woman to be so honoured. Three hundred years later, only one work attributed to de Vos is known to remain - a haunting winter scene, At the Edge of a Wood, which hangs over the Manhattan bed of a wealthy descendant of the original owner.…
This is a lovely book about the origins of Delft Blue ceramics, and the role of a woman painter in creating it.
Simone van der Vlugt is herself Dutch, and the book has a wonderful atmospheric feeling that puts the reader into the world of 17th-century Netherlands. Like other books on this list, it explores a woman’s role in the art world, but it moves away from painting into the realm of pottery and commerce, as Delft Blue develops to compete with Chinese porcelain coming into Europe at the time.
Plague plays a major role in the book, too, for readers with a morbid fascination of that element of European history.
From Simone Van Der Vlugt comes her European bestselling novel of a young woman's rise as a painter in Holland's Golden Age—perfect for readers of The Miniaturist, Tulip Fever, and Girl with a Pearl Earring.
Amsterdam 1654: against the backdrop of Holland's Golden Age, a dangerous secret threatens to destroy a young widow's new life.
Following the sudden death of her husband, twenty-five-year old Catrin leaves her small village and takes a job as a housekeeper to the successful Van Nulandt merchant family. Amsterdam is a city at the peak of its powers: science and art are flourishing in the…
Not all historical fiction has to be the Renaissance, and not all art has to be painting.
All the Light We Cannot Sea hinges on a diamond, and it breaks the rules of my title in that it is not about the artists, but about the curators who protect it (although they do make copies of the diamond to fool the Germans, so we can bend the rules and call them artists).
If you like historical fiction, you may already have read this 2015 Pulitzer Prize winner, but if not, pick it up (and if so, favorite books are always worth a second read!) The story of a cursed diamond that the Nazis want to capture in World War II, and the people struggling to protect it and survive, is a beautiful, heartbreaking read.
It’s a lyrical story of survival and humanity in the time of war, with unforgettable characters and plenty of suspense. And it features a large, blue, French diamond, so what’s not to love?!
WINNER OF THE 2015 PULITZER PRIZE FOR FICTION NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FINALIST NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER WINNER OF THE CARNEGIE MEDAL FOR FICTION
A beautiful, stunningly ambitious novel about a blind French girl and a German boy whose paths collide in occupied France as both try to survive the devastation of World War II
Open your eyes and see what you can with them before they close forever.'
For Marie-Laure, blind since the age of six, the world is full of mazes. The miniature of a Paris neighbourhood, made by her father to teach her the way home. The microscopic…
The most recent of my picks, The Marriage Portrait considers the brief life of Lucretzia d’Medici.
This book has a nicely unpredictable ending, an especially nice surprise, given that it begins with a historical note about Lucretzia’s tragic, early demise and an opening scene only a few hours before that demise.
It then backtracks through the life of an unimportant daughter in the most important family in Europe, and what it meant to be valued only for your potential to form an alliance through marriage to a stranger. But most deliciously, it is the story of a spirited young woman with an eye for beauty, who finds self-expression and resistance in a life controlled first by father and then by husband.
And did I mention, there are a few twists at the end?
WOMEN'S PRIZE FOR FICTION FINALIST • REESE’S BOOK CLUB PICK • NEW YORK TIMES BEST SELLER • The author of award-winning Hamnet brings the world of Renaissance Italy to jewel-bright life in this unforgettable fictional portrait of the captivating young duchess Lucrezia de' Medici as she makes her way in a troubled court.
“I could not stop reading this incredible true story.” —Reese Witherspoon (Reese’s Book Club Pick)
"O’Farrell pulls out little threads of historical detail to weave this story of a precocious girl sensitive to the contradictions of her station...You may know the history, and you may think you…
My life and work have been profoundly affected by the central circumstance of my existence: I was born into a very large military Catholic family in the United States of America. As a child surrounded by many others in the 60s, I wrote, performed, and directed family plays with my numerous brothers and sisters. Although I fell in love with a Canadian and moved to Canada, my family of origin still exerts considerable personal influence. My central struggle, coming from that place of chaos, order, and conformity, is to have the courage to live an authentic life based on my own experience of connectedness and individuality, to speak and be heard.
Trapped in her enormous, devout Catholic family in 1963, Annie creates a hilarious campaign of lies when the pope dies and their family friend, Cardinal Stefanucci, is unexpectedly on the shortlist to be elected the first American pope.
Driven to elevate her family to the holiest of holy rollers in the parish, Annie is tortured by her own dishonesty. But when “The Hands” visits her in her bed and when her sister finds herself facing a scandal, Annie discovers her parents will do almost anything to uphold their reputation and keep their secrets safe.
Questioning all she has believed and torn between her own gut instinct and years of Catholic guilt, Annie takes courageous risks to wrest salvation from the tragic sequence of events set in motion by her parents’ betrayal.
