The Art Forger - by B A Shapiro (Paperback)

About the Book

On March 18, 1990, 13 works of art now worth more than $500 million were stolen from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston. It remains the largest unsolved art heist in history, and struggling young artist Claire Roth is about to discover that there's more to this crime than meets the eye.

Book Synopsis

A BOSTON GLOBE BEST CRIME BOOK

A gripping art-world thriller about a struggling painter who agrees to forge a stolen Degas masterpiece, only to uncover a dangerous secret buried in the painting's history.

"Gripping." --O, The Oprah Magazine

Almost twenty-five years after the infamous art heist at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum--still the largest unsolved art theft in history--one of the stolen Degas paintings is delivered to the Boston studio of a young artist.

Claire Roth has entered into a Faustian bargain with a powerful gallery owner by agreeing to forge the Degas in exchange for a one-woman show in his renowned gallery. But as she begins her work, she starts to suspect that this long-missing masterpiece--the very one that had been hanging at the Gardner for one hundred years--may itself be a forgery. The Art Forger is a thrilling novel about seeing--and not seeing--the secrets that lie beneath the canvas.

Claire Roth has entered into a Faustian bargain with a powerful gallery owner by agreeing to forge the Degas in exchange for a one-woman show in his renowned gallery. But as she begins her work, she starts to suspect that this long-missing masterpiece--the very one that had been hanging at the Gardner for one hundred years--may itself be a forgery. The Art Forger is a thrilling novel about seeing--and not seeing--the secrets that lie beneath the canvas.

"[A] highly entertaining literary thriller about fine art and foolish choices." --Parade

Review Quotes

"The Art Forger is the real thing."

--USA Today

"[A] highly entertaining literary thriller about fine art and foolish choices."

--Parade

"[A] nimble mystery."

--The New York Times Book Review

"[Shapiro] has such interesting things to say about authenticity--in both art and love--that her novel becomes not just emotionally involving but addictive."

--Entertainment Weekly

"An engaging tale about art, cupidity, and a Faustian bargain . . . [Shapiro] knows art history, painting techniques, and how forgers have managed through the centuries to dupe buyers into paying for fakes . . . Inventive and entertaining."

--The Boston Globe

"An intelligent, cleverly plotted page-turner."

--Minneapolis Star Tribune

"Engaging storytelling. Intelligent entertainment."

--Kirkus Reviews

"Gripping."

--O, The Oprah Magazine

"If Bridget Jones's Diary and The Da Vinci Code had a love child, this would be it."

--Elle

"Ingeniously and skillfully plotted."

--The Huffington Post

"Precise and exciting . . . Readers seeking an engaging novel about artists and art scandals will find The Art Forger rewarding for its skillful balance of brisk plotting, significant emotional depth and a multi-layered narration rich with a sense of moral consequence."

--The Washington Post

"Warning: Don't dig into this book if you have something to do . . . An addictive thriller."

--Redbook

About the Author

B. A. Shapiro is the bestselling author of The Collector's Apprentice, The Muralist, and The Art Forger, which won the New England Book Award for Fiction and the Boston Authors Society Award for Fiction, among other honors. Her books have been selected as community reads in numerous cities and translated throughout the world. Before becoming a novelist, she taught sociology at Tufts University and creative writing at Northeastern University. She and her husband, Dan, divide their time between Boston and Florida.