When an elegant French antiques dealer dies in her adopted hometown of New York City, her son, Misha, is astonished to learn that she owned a priceless, uncataloged Titian known as The Gypsy Madonna. Misha wonders how she could have kept such a secret from him, bonded inseparably as they were since his childhood in German-occupied France. Now with the discovery of the Titian masterpiece and the loss of his mother, he must at last journey back to Bordeaux to uncover the truth about The Gypsy Madonna -- and himself.
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Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
British author Montefiore (Last Voyage of the Valentina) offers up an uneven mix of family intrigue and international mystery in her latest. When Anouk, the ailing mother (and business partner) of Manhattan antiques dealer Mischa, donates The Gypsy Madonna, a previously unknown Titian painting, to the Met shortly before her death, Mischa is astonished; he never knew she owned the painting. After Mischa vows to discover how the artwork came into his mother's possession, the novel flashes back to his troubled childhood in postwar Bordeaux, France. He and Anouk are shunned by their fellow villagers, but after a charismatic American, Coyote, arrives and wins Anouk's and Mischa's hearts, the dashing stranger's celebrity-like status among the locals rubs off on Mischa and Anouk. The three, at Coyote's insistence, move to New Jersey, but after several years of playing house, Coyote disappears, and Mischa begins to run with a rough crowd. Graphic sex scenes add grit, but Mischa's coming-of-age mostly putters along until the book's concluding section, when Mischa's globe-trotting investigation into the truth about the painting lays bare a number of secrets. Unfortunately, the bulk of the book is an extended flashback that lacks narrative urgency. (Mar.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
From Booklist
Mischa Fontaine was born in a French village in 1941, the son of a German army officer. In the bitter aftermath of World War II, his parentage leads to both Mischa and his mother, Anouk, being tortured and ostracized. When he is six, a stranger named Coyote arrives in the village, falls in love with Anouk, and eventually convinces Anouk and Mischa to flee with him to America, where they settle in New Jersey. Fast forward to 1985: Anouk is dead, and Mischa, who thought he knew everything about his mother, is shocked to learn that she donated an original Titian, The Gypsy Madonna, to the Met shortly before her death. Where did Anouk get the priceless painting? As Mischa tries to unravel the mystery, he is forced to confront his past, with its tortuous, bittersweet memories. This surprisingly nuanced romantic saga is chockablock with all the right ingredients: love, hate, sentiment, magic, and mystery. Montefiore's Last Voyage of the Valentina (2006) was a hit with the Maeve Binchy crowd; this one will be, too. Emily Melton
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
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More About the Author
I was born in England in 1970. My father is a farmer. When I was born he had grown a very successful crop of winter barley called Senter barley, so he suggested they name me Senter in celebration. My mother is Anglo Argentine and naturally thought it a terrible idea, so suggested Santa, which means saint in Spanish. Growing up I wanted to be called Jane. There isn't a joke I haven't heard. Now I rather like it, combined with my husband's name Montefiore, which means mountain flower in Italian, I think it's rather colourful. I always wanted to be a writer. There has never been a time when I haven't written. I spent a year in Argentina when I was nineteen and that changed my life in so many ways. I loved who I was when I was there. Speaking another language, not being boxed by class as we are in England, being free to be the person I chose rather than being dictated to by expectation. I fell in love with the pampa, the flat, fertile plains, the smells of gardenia and eucalyptus, the expressive, passionate people I met there. I wrote my first novel Meet Me Under The Ombu Tree, inspired by the country I had fallen in love with. My first four novels are based in Latin America. They're not sold in the USA yet. Here's hoping! My other four are published by Simon & Schuster. I live in London with my husband, the historian and novelist Simon Sebag-Montefiore, and our two children, Lily and Sasha.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Yes, yes, yes! An exquisite masterpiece of restrained prose....,
By hawthorne wood "hawthorne wood" (santa fe, new mexico) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Gypsy Madonna (Paperback)
Every sentence is perfectly, sensitively, lovingly presented like a gift. This is one of the most beautiful books I have ever come across. I, too, feel lucky to have found it. I will sing its praises to my friends, and cherish it as one of the delicious "finds" of my life. I hope it becomes a classic among people with literary taste. It makes me ill that the most stupid, clumsy, awkwardly-written books are best-sellers, and this little gem is barely noticed. I hope that is not the last word on The Gypsy Madonna, which deserves as much (if not more) of a place on the NYT list as the mildly interesting The Memory Keeper's Daughter. (Never overestimate the taste of the American public!) In any case, those of us who love this book, let's make sure it gets known, heard and read (the audio CD is exquisite). What really thrilled me was the author's ability to truly understand, in the most delicate and heartwarming way, the heart and soul of a six-year-old boy; especially how the young are capable of soaring feelings of romantic love and friendship. Read it! You'll love it!
7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Could not put this book down!!!,
By
This review is from: The Gypsy Madonna (Paperback)
I stumbled upon this book while searching for a novel to help me through a small infection. It was a WONDERFUL find. The prose is beautiful, and although I normally detest both coming of age stories and first-person narratives, I was captivated from the first page and was not able to stop reading --- except to take care of essentials like meals --- until the very last page. The experience reminds me of my favorite reading experiences, and the book reminds me, with its exquisite sense of place, of THE ENGLISH PATIENT. This author is AMAZING, and this book is the best I have read for ages. Thank you S & S for bringing this author to American audiences! I am appalled by the PW review. The reveiwer must be either too burned out or too immature to recognize good fiction. This skilled novelist creates such psychological and emotional tension in this story that it intriques as well as any page-turning thriller.
BRAVA, Santa Monetfiore! I can't wait to read your other books!
0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Repetitive Pabulum,
By Rosanna (Maryland) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Gypsy Madonna (Paperback)
Awkward writing with a dull sentence structure and an odd use of simile, this nearly 400 page novel is painfully repetitive. Steer clear.
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