The Collector's Apprentice: A Novel - Tapa dura

"Shapiro delivers a clever and complex tale of art fraud, theft, scandal, murder, and revenge. [Her] portrayal of the 1920s art scene in Paris and Philadelphia is vibrant, and is populated by figures like Alice B. Toklas and Thornton Wilder; readers will be swept away by this thoroughly rewarding novel." --Publishers Weekly "Lush, atmospheric . . . Shapiro's romantic and suspenseful art thriller will delight historical- and crime-fiction fans." --Booklist "B.A. Shapiro is back with a platinum potion of art, love, and scandal, set against the big backdrop of Paris between the wars. If you can put The Collector's Apprentice down, you're made of stronger stuff than I am. I read it in one sumptuous sitting. This is a big story, from a big talent." --Jacquelyn Mitchard, author of The Deep End of the Ocean "Dazzling and seductive, The Collector's Apprentice is a tour de force--an exhilarating tale of shifting identities, desire, and intrigue set between 1920s Paris and Philadelphia. Shapiro is a master at melding historical and fictional characters to bring the past alive on the page, and in The Collector's Apprentice she has forged an exquisite, multilayered story that maps the cogent and singular fire of a young woman's ambition and the risks she will take for the sake of art." --Dawn Tripp, bestselling author of Georgia "I was engrossed in every twist and turn in this compulsively captivating page-turner, all the way until its astonishing denouement. Shapiro has done it again!" --Thrity Umrigar, bestselling author of The Space Between Us "A seamless blend of art history set against a wider historical backdrop." --Detroit Jewish News "In prose lush with post-Impressionist art history, Shapiro's intriguing novel presents a heroine either evil or sympathetic--until the very end." --Shelf Awareness "Shapiro packs her novel with intrigues and mysteries . . . Readers will . . . be charmed." --Chapter16.org "B. A. Shapiro delivers another dose of art history, wrapped tightly in a thriller." --New York Journal of Books "Shapiro creates a complex, detailed, and historically-accurate world, and the lack of any straightforwardly heroic characters, along with a superb depiction of the glamorous 1920s Parisian art scene, makes this novel a standout among dark, twisting historical mysteries." --San Francisco Book Review

It's the summer of 1922, and nineteen-year-old Paulien Mertens finds herself in Paris - broke, disowned, and completely alone. Everyone in Belgium, including her own family, believes she stole millions in a sophisticated con game perpetrated by her then-fiance, George Everard. To protect herself from the law and the wrath of those who lost everything, she creates a new identity, a Frenchwoman named Vivienne Gregsby, and sets out to recover her father's art collection, prove her innocence - and exact revenge on George. When the eccentric and wealthy American art collector Edwin Bradley offers Vivienne the perfect job, she is soon caught up in the Parisian world of post-Impressionists and expatriates - including Gertrude Stein and Henri Matisse, with whom Vivienne becomes romantically entwined. As she travels between Paris and Philadelphia, where Bradley is building an art museum, her life becomes even more complicated - George returns with unclear motives and then Vivienne is arrested for Bradley's murder. The bestselling author of The Art Forger and The Muralist has made the art history novel her own. In The Collector's Apprentice, B. A. Shapiro gives us an unforgettable tale about the lengths to which people will go for their obsession, whether it be art, money, love, or vengeance.