“A clever, twisty novel about art, authenticity, love, and betrayal. B. A. Shapiro knows about Degas, and she knows about art theft and forgery, and she also knows how to tell a gripping story.” —Tom Perrotta
Almost twenty-five years after the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum’s infamous art heist—still the largest unsolved art theft in history—one of the stolen Degas paintings is delivered to the Boston studio of a young artist named Claire Roth. Claire, whose reputation has been tarnished by scandal and who now makes her living reproducing famous works of art for a popular online retailer, has entered into a Faustian bargain with Aiden Markel, a powerful gallery owner. She agrees 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.
As Claire searches for the truth about the painting’s origins, she finds herself in a desperate race through a labyrinth of trapdoors, dead ends, and deceit, where secrets hidden since the late nineteenth century may be the only evidence that can save her from incrimination. Blending art history with passions of the heart, B. A. Shapiro allows us to smell the oil paint, see the brush strokes, feel the artist’s ambition and the collector’s fanaticism. As she explores the ingenious techniques of forgery and reimagines historical relationships, she reveals both the beauty of the artist’s vision and the ugliness the desire for great art can unleash.
The Art Forger is a thrilling novel about seeing—and not seeing—the secrets that lie beneath the canvas.
B. A. Shapiro lives in Boston and teaches fiction writing at Northeastern University.
Bookseller Praise for B. A. Shapiro’s The Art Forger
“A literary art thriller. This is a novel booksellers can confidently place in the hands of their most discerning fiction readers.” –Stan Hynds, Northshire Bookstore, Manchester Center, VT
“A many layered literary thriller about love, betrayal and authenticity. One of my favorite picks for the fall!” –Lanora Haradon, Next Chapter Bookshop, Mequon, WI
“An enthralling, exciting, and utterly amazing book. I’m going out on a limb to say that it’s the best book I’ve read this year–it’s that good!” –Susan Wasson, Bookworks, Albuquerque, NM
“Fascinating . . . a terrific read!” –Susan Taylor, Book House of Stuyvesant Plaza, Albany, NY
“The Art Forger is that rarest of novels, one that entertains and informs in equal measures.” –Bill Cusumano, Nicola’s Books, Ann Arbor, MI
“A real page turner . . . a super fun read!” –Stesha Brandon, University of Washington Bookstore, Seattle, WA
“I couldn’t put it down . . . Shapiro is a wonderful storyteller.” –Aaron Curtis, Books & Books, Miami, FL
“An informative, suspenseful and entertaining read featuring a spunky and memorable protagonist. Immensely enjoyable!” –Patti Pattee, Watermark Book Company, Anacortes, WA
B. A. Shapiro on The Art Forger
I’m a cowardly writer. Some writers sit down and begin a novel without knowing where it will end, trusting the process to bring their story to a satisfying conclusion. But not me. I don’t have the courage to begin a book until I know there’s an end—and a middle too. I need an outline that allows me to believe my idea might be transformed into a successful novel. Some writers need a working title; I need a working plot. Which is why it takes me so damn long to get from that first glimmer of an idea to a complete manuscript. The Art Forger was no different. The first time I encountered art collector and museum founder Isabella Stewart Gardner in 1983, I fell in love. I wanted to hang out with her, walk lions down Boston streets with her, buy famous paintings, and do all kinds of outrageous things that would scandalize the stuffed shirts around us. But, alas, she died in 1924. I dismissed the idea of a “Belle” novel because she intimidated me—see, more cowardice—but I never forgot her.
Then in 1990, she burst on the scene, or at least her namesake, Boston’s Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, did, when two men dressed as police officers bound and gagged two guards and stole thirteen pieces of art, including Rembrandt’s Storm on the Sea of Galilee, Vermeer’s The Concert, and works by Degas and Manet from the collection. Now, I thought, now I might just be able to make it work.
But despite the media taking the theft international, suspects who ran the gamut from the Mafia to the Vatican, and the lack of any arrests, I just couldn’t find my story. What could Belle possibly have to do with a heist seventy years after her death? How could I write a book about a robbery that hadn’t been solved? What if it was solved before I was finished—or worse just after I’d completed it—and the real solution was nothing like mine? Cowardly writer that I am, I put the idea back in the drawer.
Nineteen years later, the mystery of the Gardner heist still hadn’t been solved, and Belle was still haunting me. I read half a dozen biographies and hundreds of letters, and I scoured the Internet. I was thinking I might do something like Irving Stone or Gore Vidal would, writers whose books I loved, and considered a fictionalized biography. But embracing the entirety of Isabella Gardner’s action-packed life was too daunting—some things never change—so, once again, Belle was shelved.
Around this time I began taking a series of art courses that toured galleries and museums with a well-known artist for a guide. She opened my eyes, not just to the wonder of what we were seeing, but to the complicated worlds of creating, collecting, curating, and selling works of art. I also developed a fascination with art theft and art forgery. Now, I thought, now I really might have my Belle book. So I wrote synopses, created plot charts, developed character sketches, then scratched it all and did it again. I was growing closer, but the pieces weren’t all quite there; something was missing: I couldn’t see the end.
Simultaneously, I was struggling with writing and wondering if I should just give up the whole endeavor. One day, as I was ruminating on how difficult life was for anyone in the arts and feeling more than a bit sorry for myself, my missing link appeared in the form of a question: What would any of us be willing to do to secure our ambitions? Unknown artists, famous artists, collectors, brokers, and gallery owners? Me? Belle?
So I expanded my cast of characters and gave each one a temptation their egos couldn’t resist, including a struggling artist willing to make the ultimate Faustian bargain, and then I added them to the mix of art theft, art forgery, the Gardner Museum heist, and, of course, my buddy Belle. Suddenly, just like the Cowardly Lion, who became brave when he had his medal, I became brave when I had my plot. The Art Forger is the result.
Booksellers, request a galley!
