I Am You
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- $19.99
Publisher Description
This “lush, sexy, absorbing novel” of historical fiction “brings to life two artists who are inextricably linked in passion and competition” (Melissa Febos, bestselling author of Girlhood)
A “captivating” lesbian romance set in the “wonderfully atmospheric” art world of 1600s Amsterdam (Sarah Jessica Parker, SJP Lit)
At eight years old, Gerta Pieters is forced to disguise herself as a boy and sent to work for a genteel Dutch family. When their brilliant and beautiful daughter Maria sees through Gerta’s ruse, she insists that Gerta accompany her to Amsterdam and help her enter the elite, male-dominated art world.
While Maria rises in the ranks of society as a painting prodigy, Gerta makes herself invaluable in every way: confidante, muse, lover. But as Gerta steps into her own talents, their relationship fractures into a complex web of obsession and rivalry—and the secrets they keep threaten to unravel everything.
A mesmerizing historical novel, I Am You is a meditation on gender, an ode to artistic creation, and an unforgettable love story that reimagines the life of renowned still life painter Maria van Oosterwijck during the Dutch Golden Age.
“A stunning accomplishment.” —Michael Cunningham, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of Day and The Hours
“[A] transporting epic of making art and love.” —Booklist
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Redel's sensuous latest (after Paradise) explores the fraught relationship between Dutch Golden Age painter Maria van Oosterwijck and Gerta Pieters, her servant turned apprentice. Gerta enters Maria's household disguised as a boy named Pieter, chopping wood and slaughtering rabbits for Maria's father while becoming quietly enthralled by her magnetic presence. Maria tells Gerta that she knows Gerta's secret and reveals it to the family, declaring that Gerta will join her in Utrecht as a maid, where Maria plans to study flower painting. There, and later in their shared Amsterdam home, Gerta works as Marta's assistant while secretly honing her own painting skills. Their intense and turbulent bond is tested when Maria humiliates Gerta in front of a prominent collector by saying she's taught her maid how to paint, and Gerta takes her cue by making a mess on a canvas. In private, Maria recognizes Gerta's talent and calls her Pieter, a form of role-playing that leads to sex. Gerta is engrossed in the physical relationship with her tempestuous employer, until their arrangement is tested by the arrival of Maria's entitled nephew. The erotically charged studio scenes vividly capture the complexities of Gerta's devotion to Maria and her eventual resistance to Maria's dominance. Readers will relish this memorable portrait of two fiercely independent women.
