The source of inspiration for the novelist Camille de Peretti for her latest novel, an excuse to cross times and places – Vienna in 1900, Texas in the 1980s, Italy today – was a painting by Gustav Klimt , Portrait of a lady. A work of art which had an extraordinary destiny : painted in 1910, it was retouched for unknown reasons by the painter himself a year before his death, later purchased by a gallery, then stolen and found in improbable circumstances. What mysteries! And that’s without counting the one that persists around the pretty young woman in the portrait, because no art specialist has managed to identify who she really was… A perfect story to sign an adventure novel, which combines the big and the small story with talent.
The novel begins with Isidore, born in Vienna and who, before arriving in the United States, has already experienced tragedy in his short life. He is an intelligent and resourceful boy who, to earn a living, works as a shoe shiner in Manhattan. Placed in a place where many businessmen pass through, Isidore does not have his ears in his pocket and little by little, the Stock Exchange no longer has any secrets for him. To escape from his condition, become rich and marry the girl he covets, it is not enough to be smart, you also have to know how to take risks., be bold and be lucky. Was the stock market crash of 1929 the ideal moment for him?
“But when Pearl appeared, it took a few seconds before he received the shock”
Later, he kept his past secret from his wife Lotte and his children. But not to mention Michelle, who reappears one fine day in his life and with whom he had an affair and… a daughter, named Pearl. Isidore is an honest and good man who assumes his responsibilities. He will take under his wing the young girl, who arrives late in his life and who fascinates him in more than one way. It must be said that she looks exactly like the woman painted in a painting that is not unknown to her and signed Gustav Klimt… Three generations – Marthe, Isidore’s mother, Isidore then Pearl – bring this romantic story to life as desired. , rich in emotions.
The extract: “But when Pearl appeared, it took him a few seconds before he received the shock. On the threshold of his living room, in jeans and a checkered shirt a little too big for her, stood a vision returned from hell, that of a very distant past, a young dark-haired woman, with blue eyes and a pink complexion.”
To talk about her latest novel, Camille de Peretti welcomes us to her library. “I read compulsively, more than one book a week. And good big books!” she says. Find the entire podcast in the player at the top of this article.
The bibliography of Camille de Peretti
- Thornytorinx, 2005, ed. Belfond
- We are cruel, 2006, ed. Stock
- We will grow old together, 2008, ed. Stock
- La Casati, 2011, ed. Stock
- Little arrangements with our hearts, 2014, ed. Stock
- Busty blonde, 2016, ed. Kero
- The Blood of Mirabelle Plums, 2019, ed. Calmann-Lévy
- The definitive Dreamers, 2021, ed. Calmann-Lévy
- The Unknown Portrait, 2024, ed. Calmann-Lévy