Loving Modigliani:
The Afterlife of Jeanne Hébuterne,
by
Linda Lappin
(historical fiction)
Published December 15, 2020
at Serving House Books
350 pages
***
On Goodreads
SYNOPSIS
PARIS 1920
Dying just 48 hours after Modigliani, artist Jeanne Hébuterne, his wife and muse, haunts their shared studio, watching as her legacy is erased.
Decades later, Jeanne’s lost diary comes to light and an art history student travels across Europe to rescue Jeanne’s artwork from obscurity.
“Brilliantly researched, imaginative cross-genre historical fiction…The book’s inventive afterlife is as vividly drawn as the streets of Paris.”– Kirkus
“The zeitgeist is superbly captured… the protagonists lovingly sketched…a fine tribute to an artist forgotten for 100 years.” – Historical Novel Society Review
“Singularly unique and intensely ambitious and an utter joyride.” — Indie Reader
“Eloquent, finely fashioned, deftly crafted…especially recommended addition to community, college, and university library Contemporary Literary Fiction collections.” – Midwest Book Review
“Loving Modigliani brings alive the streets and cafés of Montparnasse in full multi-sensory detail… If you are a supporter of the under-appreciated women artists of their time, you will applaud Lappin’s choice of subject and you’ll love the novel’s ending. “ BonjourParis.com
Loving Modigliani
won the Women’s Fiction Prize in the Indie Reader Discovery Awards, 2021.
It was shortlisted for the Daphne DuMaurier Award in 2021,
and shortlisted for the Montaigne Medal for Books of Distinction in 2022.
It was a book pick for the Da Vinci Art Alliance Book Club in 2021.
Giveaway:
1 US/UK participant will receive a paperback copy of this book
Katherine’s Wish
by
Linda Lappin
(historical fiction/biographical fiction)
Published July 2008
at Wordcraft of Oregon
228 pages
***
On Goodreads
SYNOPSIS
In “Katherine’s Wish,” author Linda Lappin delves into the final years of renowned New Zealand writer Katherine Mansfield, offering a fictionalized account of her life and the events leading up to her encounter with P.D. Ouspensky and G.I. Gurdjieff.
Lappin meticulously researches Mansfield’s world, crafting a vivid and evocative narrative that transports readers back in time. Drawing from Mansfield’s own journals, letters, and diaries, Lappin weaves together a mosaic of themes and motifs, mirroring Mansfield’s unique writing style.
The novel has garnered praise from Mansfield scholars for its blend of creative storytelling and scholarly accuracy.
Set against a backdrop of Mansfield’s nomadic lifestyle, which takes her from London to the South of France, Italy, Switzerland, and eventually Fontainebleau, searching a cure for her tuberculosis, Lappin explores Mansfield’s relationships with Ida Baker, her companion, and John Middleton Murry, her husband, as well as with writers and intimate friends, Virginia Woolf and D.H. Lawrence.
Incorporating modernist techniques employed by Mansfield and Virginia Woolf, the novel grapples with tragic elements while ultimately celebrating Mansfield’s profound love of life. It conveys a powerful message of joy and fulfillment in the face of adversity.
“Katherine’s Wish” has garnered recognition and acclaim, including being a finalist for the ForeWord Book of the Year Award in fiction and winning the IPPY Gold medal in historical fiction.
It has also received honorable mentions from the Hoffer Awards, the Paris Book Festival, and the Next Generation Indie Awards.
“Katherine’s Wish is first and foremost the compelling story of an artist fighting against time. Long after the last page, thoughts of her linger like an exotic scent, as if, anticipating other guests, she simply stepped from the room to display a vase of flowers or a platter’s mounded figs. –Joyce J. Townsend, Rain Taxi
“The more Katherine Mansfield approaches death, the more she comes to life in Linda Lappin’s Katherine’s Wish. Lappin’s achievement is to succeed where medicine failed and, through her words, give Katherine Mansfield ongoing life. ” –Walter Cummins, The Literary Review
A radio play adapted from the book dealing with Mansfield’s friendship with Virginia Woolf
is available on all podcast platforms
Giveaway:
1 US/UK participant will receive a paperback copy of this book
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Linda Lappin
is the prize-winning author of four novels:
The Etruscan (Wynkin deWorde, 2004),
Katherine’s Wish (Wordcraft, 2008),
dealing with the last five years of Katherine Mansfield’s life,
Signatures in Stone: A Bomarzo Mystery (Pleasureboat Studio, 2013),
and Loving Modigliani: The Afterlife of Jeanne Hébuterne (Serving House Books, 2020). Signatures in Stone was the overall winner of the Daphne DuMaurier prize for best mystery novel of 2013.
She is also the author of The Soul of Place: Ideas and Exercises for Conjuring the Genius Loci, (Travelers Tales, 2015), which won a Nautilus Award in the category of creativity in 2015.
A former Fulbright scholar to Italy, she has lived mainly in Rome for over thirty years.
Her website is www.lindalappin.net
Connect with her on Facebook and Twitter
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July 28, 2023
WordsAndPeace
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