You are here

Back to top

The Art Forger: A Novel (Paperback)

The Art Forger: A Novel Cover Image
$18.99
Usually Ships in 1-5 Days

November 2012 Indie Next List


“The Art Forger is a clever and gripping story. Claire Roth, a talented artist, finds herself intricately involved in the seedier side of art forgeries when she makes a questionable deal to forge a Degas masterpiece. Just like a fine painting, this is a many-layered literary thriller about love, betrayal, and authenticity. Shapiro builds the story with pitch-perfect suspense and plot twists that you don't see coming. While you are drawn deeply into the story, Shapiro outlines big questions about morality, fame, and truth in a world that is all about creating illusion for the sake of beauty. A masterpiece!”
— Lanora Haradon, Next Chapter Bookshop, Mequon, WI

Description


“[A] highly entertaining literary thriller about fine art and foolish choices.” —Parade 

“[A] nimble mystery.” —The New York Times Book Review

“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.

About the Author


B. A. Shapiro is the bestselling author of The Collector's ApprenticeThe 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.

Praise For…


Boston Globe's Best Crime Books of 2012

The Art Forger is the real thing.” —USAToday.com

“[A] nimble mystery.”—The New York Times Book Review

"Gripping." —O, The Oprah Magazine

“[A] highly entertaining literary thriller about fine art and foolish choices.” —Parade

"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

"If Bridget Jones's Diary and The Da Vinci Code had a love child, this would be it." —Elle (Reader's Panel Reviewer)

“[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

"Ingeniously and skillfully plotted." —The Huffington Post

“Warning: Don’t dig into this book if you have something to do . . . An addictive thriller.” —Redbook

“An engaging tale about art, cupidity, and a Faustian bargain . . . Shapiro convincingly depicts the rarefied art world that lionizes a chosen few and ignores the talented, scrabbling outsiders on the fringe. Shapiro is adept, too, at showing the white-hot heat of an artist engaged in creating a painting. She 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

“Smart, sexy . . . spellbinding.” Redbookmag.com

“An intelligent, cleverly plotted page-turner.” —Minneapolis Star Tribune 

“Engaging storytelling. Intelligent entertainment.” —Kirkus Reviews


Product Details
ISBN: 9781616203160
ISBN-10: 1616203161
Publisher: Algonquin Books
Publication Date: May 21st, 2013
Pages: 384
Language: English