England, 1967. Odelle Bastien is a Caribbean é migré trying to make her way in London. While working at a prestigious gallery, she discovers a painting rumored to be the work of Isaac Robles, a young, talented artist whose mysterious death has confounded the art world for decades. Drawn into a web of secrets and deceptions, Odelle does not know what to believe— or who she can trust.
Spain, 1936. Olive Schloss, the daughter of an art dealer and an English heiress, follows her parents to an impoverished village on the southern coast. She grows close to Teresa, a young housekeeper, and Teresa’ s half-brother Isaac, an idealistic painter buoyed by the revolutionary fervor that will soon erupt into civil war. When Teresa and Isaac help Olive conceal her artistic talents, it causes devastating consequences that echo into the decades to come.
From the internationally bestselling author of The Miniaturist comes a brilliantly realized story of two young women and the powerful mystery that ties them together. Rendered in exquisite detail, The Muse is an enthralling tale of desire, ambition, and the ways in which the tides of history inevitably shape and define our lives.
