The Artist

Pick it up: If you are in the mood for some gergeously written historical fiction. If you, like me, are drawn to novels about art and artistic ambition.

In the heat-drenched landscape of Provence, the reclusive and renowned painter Edouard Tartuffe lives in a remote farmhouse with his niece, Sylvette or "Ettie". Ettie, who has grown up with her uncle ("Tata") since her mother's death twenty years ago, has never left the village of Saint Augustin and knows nothing of the world outside of her home. Her entire life is dedicated to silently orchestrating the conditions necessary for Tata's artistic genius to flourish - cleaning his brushes, organizing his studio just the way he needs it, ordering his canvases, handling his correspondence, managing the household and his mercurial moods. Ettie is efficient and acquiescent, but she has secrets of her own.

Their quiet existence is disrupted by the arrival of Joseph Adelaide, a young journalist from London who hopes to make his name by interviewing the elusive "Master of Light." Tata has no interest in an interview, but he does see a use for Joseph - as the model for his next work. This is the condition on which Joseph is allowed to stay. Joseph, who poses for Tata for his "Young Man with Orange", while also trying to decode the genius of the great man, soon becomes entangled in this peculiar and isolated household.

Over the course of the sweltering summer, as Tata continues to produce more paintings, as Joseph starts to slowly get the measure of him with Ettie's guidance, and as Ettie starts to chafe at the constraints of her life, the tensions between the three characters build towards a dramatic climax.