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A stunningly original love story between a museum employee and the man in a masterpiece hanging on the walls—a breathtaking debut about time, art, and the enduring power of love.
Jean's life is the same day in and day out. Frozen in time by his painter father, the legendary Henri Matisse, Jean observes the ebb and flow of museum guests as they take in the works of his father and other masters like Renoir, Picasso, and Van Gogh. But his world takes a mesmerizing turn when Claire, a new museum employee, enters his life.
Night after night, Claire moves through the gallery where Jean's painting hangs, mopping the floors, talking softly to herself to stem her loneliness and gazing admiringly at the masterpieces above. The alluring man in the corner of the Matisse—is he watching her? Why does she feel a deepening pull to him, like he can see her truest self, her secrets? Did he just move?
In an extraordinary twist of fate, Claire discovers she can step through the frame of Jean's painting and into a bygone era, a lush, verdant snapshot of family life in France in the throes of World War I. She and Jean begin a seemingly impossible affair, falling in love against the backdrop of the gallery's other paintings come to life—glittering parties, exhilarating horse races, and windswept beach bluffs, that they can move through together and where Claire is seemingly the only modern visitor, alone in possession of this gift.
But as their happiness is threatened by challenges both inside and outside the museum, Claire and Jean find themselves in a fight to preserve the love they've only dared to dream of. Will their extraordinary connection defy the confines of reality, or will the forces conspiring against them shatter their carefully curated happiness?
"Pager debuts with the charming story of a magical portal between a 1917 Matisse painting and present-day Philadelphia... . There's plenty here to admire." —Publishers Weekly
"Whimsical and beguiling." —Kirkus Reviews
"With irrepressible whimsy and a premise so original it enchants you instantly, The Art of Vanishing is a magical debut. Part love story, part heist, Morgan Pager's novel is the perfect portal fantasy for anyone who has ever wandered a museum and wondered about the worlds, works, and lives on display. I flew through the pages and fell hard for this imaginative jewel." —Katy Hays, New York Times bestselling author of The Cloisters
"An enchanting tale of art, love, and the delicate dance between reality and illusion ... a mystery, a love story, and a timeless exploration of art and its origins ... You will never look at a painting or at love the same way again. Pager gifts us with an unforgettable journey capturing the magic that lives between logic and imagination." —Patti Callahan Henry, New York Times bestselling author of The Secret Book of Flora Lea
This information about The Art of Vanishing was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Morgan Pager is a publishing professional and the content creator behind NYC Book Girl. A graduate of Duke University, Morgan lives on the Upper West Side with her husband and their cat. The Art of Vanishing is her first novel.
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