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.

Check the book trailer!

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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TO ENTER THE GIVEAWAY
1 kinlde copy (US residents only)

Mystery novella

April 21, 2025
at Kindle Direct Publishing
Also available as paperback
Available in Italian

47 pages

PARIS NOIR: Stefano, an aspiring writer, arrives in Paris determined to write his first novel.
There he becomes obsessed with Isabelle, a young woman glimpsed on a houseboat. Soon, his pursuit of Isabelle becomes inseparable from the novel he is writing.
But to win her, Stefano must outmaneuver a mysterious rival — only to discover that both his manuscript and his romance with Isabelle may already have been stolen from him.
A seductive metafictional noir unfolding through the hidden corners of Paris.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Sergio Baldassarre is an Italian writer, poet, video maker,
amateur actor/director, and Glottodrama instructor
who lives between Rome and Tuscia.
He gained his theater experience through the
Teatro della Contaminazione in Rome
under the direction of Cristine Cibils.
Over the years, he has written, directed, and performed in several short films,
and has also published three poetry collections dedicated to place and travel.
His artistic work explores creativity as a means of self-expression, liberation,
and inquiry into the hidden dimensions of experience.
His debut novel, Un Amore Alieno a Creta (An Alien Love on Crete),
is currently being translated into English.
L’homme de l’Ile Saint-Louis celebrates his love for Paris, a city that imprints itself on the soul.

Check his website, rich with many creative projects

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3 print copies (US/UK residents)

Nonfiction / Travel guide / History

240 pages

Published April 2025 in the UK
Luster Publishing

August 12, 2025 in the US
Pre-order here.

Check the book on Goodreads

Paris is the physical memory of seven World Expos that took place in the city from 1855 to 1937. These Expos left behind monuments like the Eiffel Tower, the Musée d’Orsay, the Grand and Petit Palais…
But many traces are more subtle: your suitcase today is an evolution of the trunk Louis Vuitton won a gold medal with at Paris’ Exposition Universelle in 1867, and the typical Parisian bistro chairs were designed during those years when a multitude of cafés and restaurants flourished because of the Expos, including icons like Le Procope.

A cocktail of travel guide and history book, Nobody Sits Like the French tells these stories and many more, pointing out the marks the Expos left behind. From now on, you’ll know that every time you sip a glass of burgundy, drink from Baccarat crystal, admire a Manet or a Gauguin, and even enjoy the benefits of a working sewer system in Paris, you owe it to a World Expo there.

Check the publisher’s page for an excerpt of the book.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Charles Pappas
is a senior writer at Exhibitor magazine,
where for the last 20 years he has explored the unique history of exhibiting.
His book Flying Cars, Zombie Dogs, and Robot Overlords
shows how, when the world wants to see what the future will bring,
it looks to world expos and trade shows.

Pappas is also the author of It’s a Bitter Little World,
a collection of the most go-for-the-jugular quotes from film noir.
If you want to know the meaning of life, don’t study Shakespeare, don’t peruse Plato.
Everything you need to know in life you can learn from film noir.

His articles have won several national/regional ASBPE, MAGGIE and TABBI awards.

Check his website, especially his latest article on La Bastille, perfect for today, July 14!

Follow him on LinkedIn and on Instagram.
His specialties:
Trade shows, trade show history, and world’s fairs.
He also consults and speaks regularly on trade shows and world expos
as tipping points for all social trends, technologies, and products.

Review copies may be available.
Contact the publisher directly.