Artifacts - by Natalie Lemle (Hardcover)

Book Synopsis

One of The New York Times's Sizzling New Summer Thrillers: "Even now, Lena might be in danger from some of the unscrupulous characters she met all those years ago. Can she put her history behind her?"

For fans of The Cloisters and Counterfeit, Natalie Lemle's debut novel offers an insider's view into the world of stolen artifacts and the hidden networks that link museums to organized crime, when a woman is forced to remember the summer she spent on an archaeological dig in Italy, as everyone she knew then may now be in danger.

Successful trusts and estates attorney Lena Connolly is asked by a colleague to assist on a case: the Italian government claims an artifact was looted and sold to a museum illegally and is seeking repatriation. The object in question is a cup made of dichroic glass, which would have been rare even in Ancient Rome, let alone thousands of years later.

Lena has done everything she can to put the study abroad summer she spent on an archaeological dig in the Italian Alps behind her. Her dreams of being an archaeologist shattered when her mentor Cyrille disappeared and her enigmatic boyfriend Giamma went dark, but with this new case, the past comes roaring back.

Told in alternating timelines, Artifacts follows young Lena as she falls in love with both archaeology and Giamma on the streets of Torino while her adult self pieces together what truly happened on the dig, now a fully restored Roman villa with World Heritage status. The dichroic cup, Lena discovers, may have been taken from the very site she helped unearth.

Powerful and exuberant, Natalie Lemle's Artifacts brings readers behind the museum glass and asks questions about cultural heritage and the historical preservation of our shared sense of humanity.

Review Quotes

"Lemle pens voluptuous prose about unearthing, theft, and change: the stolen glances that permanently shift your perspective, the fragile friendships that trigger tectonic shifts in a personality. The novel is a shapeshifter too, at once a high-octane crime thriller, a bildungsroman, and a dispatch from the rarified world of antiquities dealers. By illuminating the broken economic systems that motor criminal artifact looting, Lemle also reveals the fractured, oppressive systems that organize our romantic lives, feeling for the slivers of space where we can still move freely, towards each other." --CULTURED Magazine

"For any reader interested in the study of the past, Lemle's story about a quest for self-knowledge explored through the world of cultural heritage will make for a thrilling read." --Science Magazine

"Here is a rare novel that tells the truth about art theft... there really should be more fiction on this subject." --Art in America

"World history, the pursuit of beauty, and the seedy underbelly of the art world all collide to make for a charming, compelling, and thrilling story." --Town & Country

"It's a poignant exploration of the murkiness that often complicates our understanding of the people that came before us and how we came to be who we are... The intricacies of archeology and its intersection with history and property ownership makes for a lush backdrop to the novel's interpersonal dramas, the two weaving seamlessly together without ever feeling heavy-handed. The novel's prose is fresh and engaging and Lemle creates a world for readers that is as visual as it is emotive." --Forbes

"Suspenseful... armchair travelers will enjoy themselves." --Publishers Weekly

"Lemle offers a complex story of political power, organized crime, and the underworld of antiquities pirating... readers will enjoy connecting the dots as the novel unfolds." --Library Journal

"Natalie Lemle is a spectacular new voice in American fiction. Her magnificent debut is the story of Lena Connolly, a hotshot Manhattan attorney assigned to a case regarding looted artifacts in Italy, a case that dredges up her romantic past and youthful dreams of becoming an archaeologist. Artifacts is a novel of lost dreams and the power of love in a practical world where only facts seem to matter, as Lena learns to lead with her heart to finally find her bliss." --Adriana Trigiani, author of The View from Lake Como

"With Artifacts, Natalie Lemle delivers a novel of rare density and grace, where each layer of the story rises like a stratum of archaeology--the very field that lies at the heart of the book--an accumulation of beauty, vice, hope, life, and the shadow of murder, all held together by a sensibility as precise as it is incandescent." --Thomas Schlesser, New York Times bestselling author of Mona's Eyes

"Not a lot of books can whisk you from an extravagant museum opening in New York to a dusty archaeological dig in Italy, but Natalie Lemle's rich story of intrigue and guilt will have readers swept up into a world of enigmatic power players in the black market of stolen antiquities. Artifacts explores the complications of what we inherit--not just from our parents, but from our history and heritage, too. Teasing out thorny unanswerable questions, Lemle works comfortably in the gray areas, as the best novelists do. I couldn't put it down, and I couldn't believe it was a debut."
--Emily Everett, author of Reese's Book Club pick All That Life Can Afford

"Natalie Lemle's Artifacts is a sprawling trip through time, weaving together a web of fine art, history, and long-held secrets. Finely written with a master's attention to detail, Lemle guides us deftly through the world of the ancient past, unearthing pockets of deep beauty. This book is twisty, delicious fun."
--Kristen Arnett, New York Times bestselling author of Mostly Dead Things, With Teeth, and Stop Me If You've Heard This One

About the Author

Natalie Lemle is the author of Artifacts. She studied classics and art history at Tufts University and earned an MFA in creative writing from Emerson College. She is the founder of art_works, an art advisory connecting visual artists with global companies, and serves on the boards of the Institute of Contemporary Art/Boston and the Associates of the Boston Public Library. She lives in Boston.