From the acclaimed author of
The Night Portrait
comes a stunning historical novel about two women, separated by five hundred
years, who each hide Leonardo da Vinci’s
Mona Lisa
—with unintended
consequences.
France, 1939
At the dawn of World War II, Anne Guichard, a young
archivist employed at the Louvre, arrives home to find her brother missing.
While she works to discover his whereabouts, refugees begin flooding into Paris
and German artillery fire rattles the city. Once they reach the city, the Nazis
will stop at nothing to get their hands on the Louvre’s art collection. Anne is
quickly sent to the Castle of Chambord, where the Louvre’s most precious
artworks—including the
—are being transferred to ensure their
safety. With the Germans hard on their heels, Anne frantically moves the
Mona
Lisa
and other treasures again and again in an elaborate game of hide and
seek. As the threat to the masterpieces and her life grows closer, Anne also
begins to learn the truth about her brother and the role he plays in this
dangerous game.
Florence, 1479
House servant Bellina Sardi’s future seems fixed when she accompanies
her newly married mistress, Lisa Gherardini, to her home across the Arno.
Lisa’s husband, a prosperous silk merchant, is aligned with the powerful
Medici, his home filled with luxuries and treasures. But soon, Bellina finds
herself bewitched by a charismatic monk who has urged Florentines to rise up
against the Medici and to empty their homes of the riches and jewels her new
employer prizes. When Master Leonardo da Vinci is commissioned to paint a
portrait of Lisa, Bellina finds herself tasked with hiding an impossible
secret.
When art and war collide, Leonardo da Vinci, his beautiful
subject Lisa, and the portrait find themselves in the crosshairs of history.