The Original

Stevens (Briefly, a Delicious Life) crafts an accomplished portrait of an art forger and the dubious return of her long-lost aristocratic cousin in 1899. Sixteen years earlier, Grace, now 25, was sent to live at Inderwick Hall in Oxfordshire with her aunt, uncle, and cousins after her parents were committed to an insane asylum. Growing up on the vast estate, Grace felt like “a person who belonged nowhere,” and became a skilled copyist with help from her cousin Charles, a painter. Charles was presumed dead at sea at 17, three years after Grace moved into the house. Now, he’s written to his only surviving family, Grace and his mother, calling them to Rome where he is recovering from illness. Many, including the family’s lawyer, Mr. George, question Charles’s true motives, given his position as heir of the family’s estate. Meanwhile, Grace, who’s expected to be married off to a man, grapples with her preference for women, and falls for the daughter of an artist brought in to verify Charles’s claims by examining his paintings. As the brisk plot unfolds in chapters alternating between the perspectives of Grace and the presumed Charles, Stevens raises thorny questions about the nature of art and identity. This will stay with readers. (July)