âA powerful and important tale of love and war, art and familyâŚI was transported.â âAllison Pataki, New York Times bestselling author
âAlbanese artfully weaves Adeleâs story with Mariaâs harrowing life under the Nazis, but itâs hard to read Stolen Beauty without seeing ugly echoes in todayâs headlines. Seven decades after World War II, have we learned nothing?â âUSA TODAY
From the dawn of the twentieth century to the devastation of World War II, this exhilarating novel of love, war, art, and family gives voice to two extraordinary women and brings to life the true story behind the creation and near destruction of Gustav Klimtâs most remarkable paintings.
In the dazzling glitter of 1903 Vienna, Adele Bloch-Bauerâyoung, beautiful, brilliant, and Jewishâmeets painter Gustav Klimt. Wealthy in everything but freedom, Adele embraces Klimtâs renegade genius as the two awaken to the erotic possibilities on the canvas and beyond. Though they enjoy a life where sex and art are just beginning to break through the façade of conventional society, the city is also troubled by a disturbing increase in anti-Semitism as political hatred simmers in the shadows of Adeleâs coffeehouse afternoons and cultural salons.
Nearly forty years later, Adeleâs niece Maria Altmann is a newlywed when the Nazis invade Austriaâand overnight, her beloved Vienna becomes a war zone. When her husband is arrested and her family is forced out of their stately home, Maria must summon the courage and resilience that is her auntâs legacy if she is to survive and keep her loved onesâand their historyâalive.
Will Maria and her family escape the grip of Nazi rule? And what will become of the paintings for which her aunt sacrificed nearly everything?
Impeccably researched and a âmust-read for fans of Kristin Hannahâs The Nightingale and Paula McLainâs Circling the Sunâ (Christina Baker Kline, #1 New York Times bestselling author), Stolen Beauty juxtaposes passion and discovery against hatred and despair, and shines a light on our ability to love, to destroy, and above all, to endure.