The Stolen Lady

Morelli (The Night Portrait) delivers a sprawling saga of magnetic parallel stories involving the Mona Lisa. In 15th-century Italy, Leonardo da Vinci is commissioned to paint a portrait of Lisa, the wife of silk trader Francesco del Giocondo. Meanwhile, Lisa’s longtime servant Bellina Sardi has been caught up in a plot to rise up against the ruling Medici. Her loyalty is split between Lisa and the insurgents, who intend to seize assets (including art) from landowners, and she decides to protect the unfinished portrait from their grasp. In an alternate narrative, Anne Guichard works as an archivist’s assistant at the Louvre in 1939 Paris. She accompanies the head archivist on the first of what becomes a number of missions to the countryside, where they hide pieces from the museum’s collection from the Nazis. Anne also risks her life as she also becomes involved in the Resistance. Morelli makes both story lines richly drawn, revealing the remarkable fortitude of two women who saved a masterpiece, each during a moment of upheaval. This will pull in readers from the very first page. Agent: Jenny Bent, the Bent Agency. (Sept.)