cover image The Art of Confidence

The Art of Confidence

Wendy Lee. Kensington, $15 (320p) ISBN 978-1-61773-489-2

In her third novel, Lee (Across a Green Ocean) delves into what propels people to do the right or wrong thing and centers the book’s unique perspective on the creation of a forged painting. Lee focuses on four vastly different story lines, each revolving around the painting. Artist Liu, living hand to mouth in New York City for 30 years, longing for the wife who left him, and now selling his Impressionist reproductions on the street, grapples with the morality of creating a copy of Elegy, a 1969 painting by Andrew Cantrell, for gallery owner Caroline Lowry. Lowry, who inherited the failing gallery years before from her glamorous aunt Hazel—a doyenne of the art world in her day who had an affair with Cantrell—needs a quick fix to save her business and selling a forged painting seems to be the answer. Her assistant, Molly Schaeffer, daughter of Caroline’s best friend, intrigued by the sudden appearance of the Cantrell painting in the gallery, is dealing with her own troubled past. And businessman Harold Yu hopes the purchase of the painting might add joy to his lackluster family life. As the story unfolds from different viewpoints, the author moves back and forth in time, bringing depth and understanding to what motivates people in both their personal and professional lives. (Dec.)