B. A. Shapiro

“B. A. Shapiro once again pens the art world into vivid, sensual life. Set during World War II and the dawn of Abstract Expressionism,The Muralist is an intriguing story masterfully imagined about art, war, family, truth, and freedom. If you likedThe Art Forger, you're going to love The Muralist!” —Lisa Genova, author ofStill Alice Alizée Benoit, an American painter working for the Works Progress Administration (WPA), vanishes in New York City in 1940 amid personal and political turmoil. No one knows what happened to her. Not her Jewish family living in German-occupied France. Not her artistic patron and political compatriot, Eleanor Roosevelt. Not her close-knit group of friends, including Mark Rothko, Jackson Pollock, and Lee Krasner. And, some seventy years later, not her great-niece, Danielle Abrams, who while working at an auction house uncovers enigmatic paintings hidden behind recently found works by those now famous Abstract Expressionist artists. Do they hold answers to the questions surrounding her missing aunt? Entwining the lives of both historical and fictional characters, and moving between the past and the present,The Muralist plunges readers into the divisiveness of prewar politics and the largely forgotten plight of European refugees refused entrance to the United States. It captures both the inner workings of today's New York art scene and the beginnings of the vibrant and quintessentially American school of Abstract Expressionism. B. A. Shapiro is a master at telling a riveting story while exploring provocative themes. In Alizée and Danielle she has created two unforgettable women, artists both, who compel us to ask, What happens when luminous talent collides with inexorable historical forces? Does great art have the power to change the world? And to what lengths should a person go to thwart evil? “B. A. Shapiro's The Muralist is an expertly constructed, riveting tale of art, politics, love, and consequences in the Depression Era . . . It rings with originality and authenticity. What a compelling read!” —Jami Attenberg, author ofThe Middlesteins “I am a great fan of B. A. Shapiro, especially her new novel The Muralist. It is a tantalizing mystery, as well as an involving meditation on the meaning of art over time.” —Scott Turow, author ofIdentical

The Muralist

Kathleen Mullins

Did not quite live up to the Art Forger for me, and there were some plot points that felt a little forced given the dual perspectives. I did really enjoy the historical aspect of this, I didn't know anything about the WPA or the US's position on WWII before we entered it. It tied together really nicely in the end.

Sahi K

** spoiler alert **
           
The Muralist is riveting, haunting and tragic till the end when it gives a ray of hope and leaves the reader satisfied. It also provides a slight insight into what goes on in the minds of the isolationist political leaders calling for ban on refugees in the present day and how it is not much different from history.

Before America enters WWII, Alizee Benoit, an American Jew is working as an artist with the Works Progress Administration and is friends with Jackson Pollock, Mark Rothko and Lee Krasner before they became popular as the early Abstract Expressionists. Here, Alizee is the one who is painting in abstract and influences each of them and their painting styles. She is also haunted by the fact that her whole family is in France, just before the German occupation. The roundups and arrests of Parisian Jews has begun and she is frightened. She tries her level best to secure visas for her family but is unsuccessful. She also enlists the help of First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt (who incidentally loves and purchases her paintings) but even Eleanor cannot convince the President to allow more refugees into the country because he is running for re-election and cannot afford to go against the public sentiment and support of isolationists like Breckenridge Long, Joe Kennedy and Charles Lindbergh. Alizee even decides to paint murals with a political point instead of the original commissioned artwork that is to be installed because she comes to believe that the more people who view and understand the pain and devastation depicted in it, the more they will be able to empathize with the refugees and give them safe haven. When nothing works, she even becomes a party to an assassination attempt on a powerful politician, because she assumes naively that eliminating him would somehow quench the hatred (call it anti-Semitism) of the masses and would put a stop to the wastage of visas which in turn will save thousands of innocents. Through all this, she is also devolving, has been suffering from depersonalization and finally has a breakdown just before she goes missing forever.

Seventy five years later, Alizee’s grand-niece Dani Abrams finds some murals that come her way for appraisal and she is stunned to find them very similar in style and emotion to the only two surviving paintings of her aunt. As Alizee is an unknown commodity, Dani is forbidden by her employer from digging into her aunt’s history. But she invests all her remaining time to this endeavor, hanging onto any thread she can find and finally arriving in Paris to confront the horrors that were perpetrated on her family. This journey also becomes a turning point in her life and sets her on a path to finally fulfil her destiny to be a painter.

These two remarkable women and their lives are great to read about and especially Alizee’s struggles with her art, family and her mind are truly tragic. However, the most important theme that lingers in the mind is how politicians then and now, use their words and fear psychosis to incite a group of people to hate another and play political football with the lives of hundreds of thousands of refugees. They are always going to use every tool at their disposal to gain votes and the gullible voters will get hoodwinked by the propaganda and forget the things that separates humans from other species – thinking capacity and morality. The book also serves as a reminder of the part of American history that many would want to forget – that America too was in someway complicit in the 6 million deaths, by virtue of being unresponsive.

Overall, this is a great book – an excellent amalgamation of fictional with real, history with contemporary and art with politics and also offers a unique American perspective of the Holocaust.

Mariya Tuchinskaya 

B.A. Shapiro does not disappoint. it is impossible not to sympathize with Alizee's heart wrenching story and the ending was perfect and completely unexpected

Don't miss B. A. Shapiro's new novel, The Collector's Apprentice, available now! “Vibrant and suspenseful . . . Like The Art Forger, this new story takes us into the heart of what it means to be an artist.” —The Washington Post “B. A. Shapiro captivated us in 2012 with her ‘addictive’ novel The Art Forger. Now, she’s back with another thrilling tale from the art world.” —Entertainment Weekly When Alizée Benoit, an American painter working for the Works Progress Administration (WPA), vanishes in New York City in 1940, no one knows what happened to her. Not her Jewish family living in German-occupied France. Not her artistic patron and political compatriot, Eleanor Roosevelt. Not her close-knit group of friends, including Mark Rothko, Jackson Pollock, and Lee Krasner. And, some seventy years later, not her great-niece, Danielle Abrams, who while working at Christie’s auction house uncovers enigmatic paintings hidden behind works by those now-famous Abstract Expressionist artists. Do they hold answers to the questions surrounding her missing aunt?

The Muralist

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