I Am You

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. Agent: Bill Clegg, Clegg Agency. (Sept.)