The art forger : a novel
(Book)

"Claire makes her living reproducing famous works of art for a popular online retailer. Desperate to improve her situation, she lets herself be lured into a Faustian bargain with Aiden Markel, a powerful gallery owner. She agrees to forge a painting--one of the Degas masterpieces stolen from the Gardner Museum--in exchange for a one-woman show in his renowned gallery. But when the long-missing Degas painting--the one that had been hanging for one hundred years at the Gardner--is delivered to Claire's studio, she begins to suspect that it may itself be a forgery. Claire's search for the truth about the painting's origins leads her into a labyrinth of deceit where secrets hidden since the late nineteenth century may be the only evidence that can now save her life. B. A. Shapiro's razor-sharp writing and rich plot twists make The Art Forger an absorbing literary thriller that treats us to three centuries of forgers, art thieves, and obsessive collectors. It's a dazzling novel about seeing--and not seeing--the secrets that lie beneath the canvas."--www.Amazon.com.