Somerville Reads: Meet B. A. Shapiro, author of The Art Forger

Join us as we welcome B. A. Shapiro, author of this year's Somerville Reads selection, The Art Forger.

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

Copies of The Art Forger in a variety of formats, including
e-books and audiobooks, are available for check out at all Somerville
Library locations. Reserve your copy today!

Somerville Reads is a project that promotes literacy and community by
encouraging people all over the City to read and discuss books on the
same theme.