Shade and Light

The effects of World War II resonate through the lives of two families - one American and one European - living outside of Boston. As Jenny grows up in the shadow of her parents' dark experiences in Trieste during the war, she is pulled to the haunting art and ironic gaze of her next-door neighbor Jonas, whose own father, preparing for deployment as an army medic, died before he was born. But when the mysterious Eric Stram enters her life unexpectedly, she learns how her parents' past is not behind them but will continue to push her life in unforeseen - and possibly unwanted - directions. From the author of Journal of Eva Morelli, this poignant tale of the echoes of the past and the complications of the present explores the tensions between duty to family, and the desires of the individual, and the striking way that art can draw disparate lives together. 

D'Agincourt writes in the unique literary genre of Art Fiction. Shade and Light is the fifth work of fiction in Maryann D’Agincourt’s Art Fiction series. What is Art Fiction? 

Journal of Eva Morelli is the first work of literary fiction in Maryann D’Agincourt’s Art Fiction series. Who are these two figures in the undergrowth? Why are they there? How mysterious they look as they blend into the landscape. Vincent Van Gogh does not provide clues to these question in Undergrowth with Two Figures, 1890 which graces the cover of Journal of Eva Morelli. Maryann D’Agincourt has merged her passions for art and literature into a unique and powerful form of storytelling. Art Fiction is a literary genre in which art is not solely an object, but is a reflection of what is human in all of us. 

In All Most, the second in her Art Fiction series, Maryann D'Agincourt writes an insightful collection of short stories inspired by Oskar Kokoschka’s Two Nudes (Lovers),1913. Women’s fiction at its finest, Ms. D’Agincourt delves deep into the emotional lives of her characters and sheds light on the mysteries of human decisions and the significance of art and music in our lives. A work of art precedes each story as a vivid portrayal of how art inspires literature. 

Glimpses of Gauguin, a novel in sketches, is the third work of fiction in Maryann D’Agincourt’s Art Fiction series. Ms. D’Agincourt has been viewing Paul Gauguin’s masterpiece Where Do We Come From? What Are We? Where Are We Going?, 1897-1898 from her early childhood visits to the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston to the present, providing inspiration for her stunning novel in sketches. Reflecting the themes evident in Paul Gauguin’s painting, Ms D’Agincourt explores the growth of a young woman facing the challenges of family life, school, relationships, love and marriage. 

Printz is a novel about a man named Jacob Printz who lost his purpose in life. The one constant in Jacob’s life is the image of de Kooning's Seated Woman, c.1940 he first viewed as a much younger person, an image he comes back to over and over to make sense of the loves and losses in his life. This image symbolizes the world Jacob Printz inhabits, first with his sister Catherine and later with his lover Greta. And who is Jacob?  Amedeo Modigliani's Portrait of Henri Laurens, sitting, 1915 captures him best. 

Maryann D’Agincourt is an author who is inspired by art and artists. She often visited the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston as a young girl and merged her love of literature and art into the literary genre of art fiction. 

Shade and Light is Book 5 in her Art Fiction series.