Following the Ghost of Modigliani’s Muse

We featured it here on France Book Tours, and Linda was also part of our webinar on French artists in fiction.

Today, Linda offers us “a brief look at the research and writing process behind her prize-winning novel Loving Modigliani: the Afterlife of Jeanne Hebuterne. a love story, a ghost story, a hunt for a missing masterpiece.”
“Imaginative, brilliantly researched, cross-genre historical fiction.”–Kirkus.

Click on this picture to access Linda’s flaneur guide to the places in her novel, with fascinating pictures and comments:

And now, more details on her book:

Loving Modigliani:
The Afterlife of Jeanne Hébuterne,
by
Linda Lappin

Historical mystery

 Published December 15, 2020
at Serving House Books
Available in many places
(ebook and paperback)

344 pages

Amedeo Modigliani, embittered and unrecognized genius, dies of meningitis on a cold January day in Montparnasse in 1920.
Jeanne Hébuterne, his young wife and muse, follows 48 hours later, falling backwards through a window. Now a ghost, Jeanne drifts about the studio she shared with Modigliani—for she was not only his favorite model, but also an artist whose works were later shut away from public view after her demise.
Enraged, she watches as her belongings are removed from the studio and her identity as an artist seemingly effaced for posterity, carried off in a suitcase by her brother. She then sets off to rejoin Modigliani in the underworld.
Thus begins Loving Modigliani, retelling the story of Jeanne Hébuterne’s fate as a woman and an artist through three timelines and three precious objects stolen from the studio: a notebook, a bangle, and a self-portrait of Jeanne depicted together with Modi and their daughter.
Decades later, an art history student will discover Jeanne’s diary and rescue her artwork from oblivion, after a search leading from Paris to Nice, Rome, and Venice, where Jeanne’s own quest will find its joyful reward.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Prize-winning novelist, poet, translator, and lifelong wanderer
Linda Lappin writes stories rooted in place and memory.
Originally from Tennessee, she has spent much of her life in Rome,
and the landscapes of Italy, France, and Greece have deeply shaped her work.
Her fiction explores women on the edge of transformation,
weaving together history, myth, mystery, and the uncanny
in novels such as The Etruscan, Signatures in Stone, and Loving Modigliani.
Her novel Katherine’s Wish offers an intimate portrait of writer Katherine Mansfield
during the last five years of her life.
Loving Modigliani won the Women’s Fiction category
in the Indie Reader Awards in 2021,
was shortlisted for the Daphne du Maurier Awards,
selected for the Montaigne Medal for distinguished books,
and was the 2024 winner in Historical Fiction for the Indie Author Project.
Her newest novel, Melusine & the Watery Mind, is forthcoming from Serving House Books.

Check her website and subscribe to hear about her upcoming books.
You can also follow her on Instagram.

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Autobiographical novel

Published on October 8, 2024
by New Vessel Press
208 pages

Buy the book on New Vessel Press (ebook or paperback),
on Bookshop, on Amazon

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In a grand Paris apartment, a young girl attends gatherings regularly organized by her mother. The women talk about beauty secrets and gossip, but the mood grows dark when the past, notably World War II, comes under coded discussion in hushed tones.
Years later, the silent witness to these sessions has become a prominent historian, and with this chilling autobiographical novel she sets out to unmask enigmatic figures in and around her family.
Why, she seeks to understand, did the narrator’s relatives zealously collaborate with the Nazi occupiers of France, even remaining for decades afterward obsessive devotees of that evil lost cause?

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

 

Cécile Desprairies
is a specialist in Germanic civilization
and a historian of the Nazi occupation of France.

 

The author
of several historical works about the occupation
and the Vichy regime,
she was born in Paris in 1957.

 

The Propagandist is her first novel.

 

 

 

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ALSO:
SUMMER SALE

Now 40 percent off all New Vessel Press books through Sunday, July 6.

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(Christian) Historical fiction – WWII

Published on June 3, 2025
by Bethany House Publishers
396 pages

Buy the book on Bethany House Publishers,
Entertainment with a Soul
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Review copies available on Netgalley

Loyalty during Peril
In the heart of war-torn France, Isabelle Seauve’s resolve is tested after her father sacrifices his life to protect her involvement in the French Resistance. Heartbroken, Isabelle becomes more dedicated to hiding Jewish children in and near the village of Sisteron despite the growing danger when she discovers a traitor within the Resistance ranks.

Truth amid Deception
As the shadow of betrayal looms, Isabelle’s world collides with that of US Army Chaplain Peter Christensen, who carries emotional scars from his first position in Kentucky and his service in North Africa. Together, they face the brutal reality of war as the second D-Day—the Allied invasion of Provence—unfolds.

Bravery through Trial
Fifteen-year-old René Amblard narrowly escapes a devastating German attack that claims the lives of his mother and their fellow Maquis fighters. With a Jewish orphan girl at his side, René seeks out his cousin Isabelle for refuge while he contemplates revenge.

When the bombs of Operation Dragoon begin to fall, this unlikely group of heroes must first find freedom in their souls before they can rebuild what has been destroyed.

CHECK A VIRTUAL TOUR OF THE PLACES CONNECTED WITH THE BOOK

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

ELIZABETH MUSSER,
an Atlanta native, writes ‘entertainment with a soul’ from her writing chalet—tool shed—outside Lyon, France.
Elizabeth’s award winning, best-selling novel, The Swan House,
was named one of Amazon’s Top Christian Books of the Year,
one of Georgia’s Top Ten Novels of the Past 100 Years
and was awarded the Gold Illumination Book Award 2021 for Enduring Light Fiction.

All of Elizabeth’s novels have been translated into multiple languages and have been international bestsellers.
Two Destinies, the final novel in The Secrets of the Cross trilogy, was a finalist for the 2013 Christy Award.
The Long Highway Home was a finalist for the 2018 Carol Awards.
The Promised Land won the 2021 Carol Award for Contemporary Fiction
and won second place in Literary Fiction at the 2021 Georgia Author of the Year Awards.

Elizabeth’s most recent novel, By Way of the Moonlight, is a Publisher’s Weekly Top Ten Pick in Religion and Spirituality for Fall Releases in 2022 and Parable and ECPA bestseller and was a finalist for the 2023 Christy Award.

For over thirty-five years, Elizabeth and her husband, Paul, have been involved in missions’ work in Europe with One Collective, formerly International Teams.
The Mussers have two sons, two daughters-in-law and five grandchildren.

Find more about Elizabeth and her novels on her website and on Facebook, Instagram, and her blog.
Click here to sign up to receive her Newsletter.

Elizabeth spends half the year in Lyon, France and half the year in the US, near Chattanooga, TN.
She is available for speaking engagements in both countries. You can contact her here.

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NB:
please enter full name: first name and family name
(no worry: if you are the winner,
the widget will only display your first name and the initial of your last name)

please enter your full US address, double check before clicking
Entries not abiding in these 2 rules will be disqualified

Email addresses of all entries will be sent to the author
Only the winners will have their mailing address sent to the author