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The Muse

A Novel

ebook
1 of 1 copy available
1 of 1 copy available

From the #1 internationally bestselling author of The Miniaturist comes a captivating and brilliantly realized story of two young women—a Caribbean immigrant in 1960s London, and a bohemian woman in 1930s Spain—and the powerful mystery that ties them together.

England, 1967. Odelle Bastien is a Caribbean émigré trying to make her way in London. When she starts working at the prestigious Skelton Institute of Art, she discovers a painting rumored to be the work of Isaac Robles, a young artist of immense talent and vision whose mysterious death has confounded the art world for decades. The excitement over the painting is matched by the intrigue around the conflicting stories of its discovery. Drawn into a complex web of secrets and deceptions, Odelle does not know what to believe or who she can trust, including her mesmerizing colleague, Marjorie Quick.

Spain, 1936. Olive Schloss, the daughter of a Viennese Jewish art dealer and an English heiress, follows her parents to Arazuelo, a poor, restless village on the southern coast. She grows close to Teresa, a young housekeeper, and Teresa's half-brother, Isaac Robles, an idealistic and ambitious painter newly returned from the Barcelona salons. A dilettante buoyed by the revolutionary fervor that will soon erupt into civil war, Isaac dreams of being a painter as famous as his countryman Picasso.

Raised in poverty, these illegitimate children of the local landowner revel in exploiting the wealthy Anglo-Austrians. Insinuating themselves into the Schloss family's lives, Teresa and Isaac help Olive conceal her artistic talents with devastating consequences that will echo into the decades to come.

Rendered in exquisite detail, The Muse is a passionate and enthralling tale of desire, ambition, and the ways in which the tides of history inevitably shape and define our lives.

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    • Publisher's Weekly

      May 23, 2016
      Burton’s second novel (following The Miniaturist) is a complex, vividly drawn tale centering on a mysterious painting from 1930s Spain brought to a London art institute in 1967. The author brings together two striking story lines—one involving Trinidad-born Odelle Bastien, who works in late ’60s London at a posh art institute where she becomes the protégé of an eccentric office manager, Marjorie Quick, while adjusting to life in a new country. The other thread centers on Olive Schloss, a young Viennese woman whose family settles in a mansion in Spain in 1936. Olive’s aspirations to be a painter are quashed by her father’s misogynistic views toward women artists. Her life is overturned by the arrival of Isaac and Theresa Robles, local siblings who come to work at the mansion; he is a passionate revolutionary and artist, and she is a maid, but also a lost teenager looking for connection. The intricate way in which Burton pulls the two plots together is unexpected and impressive, a most original story about creative freedom, finding one’s voice, and the quest for artistic redemption.

    • Library Journal

      April 1, 2016

      In Burton's second novel (after The Miniaturist), Odelle, an aspiring Trinidadian poet leading a new life in Britain, meets Lawrie at a wedding. Lawrie has recently inherited a painting from his mother, and that artwork is at the center of a story that moves from 1960s London to a tiny Spanish village in 1936 where a Viennese Jewish art dealer, his troubled English wife, and their talented daughter live amid growing political unrest and become involved with a local family. The threads of issues such as family secrets, racial and gender prejudice, and the nature of talent are woven throughout the narrative, which moves among time periods seamlessly, peeling away the layers to find the truth of the painting and its creator. VERDICT Historical fiction lovers as well as fans of B.A. Shapiro's The Muralist and The Art Forger will appreciate the intriguing characters, skillful writing, and evocative atmosphere of two very different eras. Readers who enjoyed Burton's debut won't be disappointed. [See Prepub Alert, 1/11/16.]--Terry Lucas, Shelter Island P.L., NY

      Copyright 2016 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

    • Booklist

      June 1, 2016
      Like her best-selling The Miniaturist (2014), Burton's second novel is a smart blend of literary and commercial fiction with intriguing characters and a compelling mystery at its center. In 1967 London, Odelle Bastien, a Trinidadian emigre with literary aspirations, begins dating a man who inherited an unusual portrait of two girls from his late mother. Its discovery excites and shocks Odelle's employers at the Skelton Institute of Art, since few works by the elusive left-wing painter Isaac Robles, who vanished during the Spanish Civil War, are known to exist. In 1936 Andalusia, Isaac and his half sister, Teresa, become involved with the wealthy Schloss family, who are renting a nearby villa. Knowing that her own artistic efforts would be slighted by her art-dealer father, daughter Olive keeps them secret, a choice that has profound aftereffects. Both historical settings are deftly evoked, and the alternating story lines enhance the charged atmosphere. Burton creatively infuses historical fiction with mystery in her exploration of the far-reaching consequences of deception, the relationship between art and artist, and the complex trajectory of women's desires.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2016, American Library Association.)

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