I Am You

http://www.renaud-bray.com

http://www.renaud-bray.com

“Spellbinding, wonderfully atmospheric, and impossible to forget.” —Sarah Jessica Parker, SJP Lit“A lush, sexy, absorbing novel that brings to life two artists who are inextricably linked in passion and competition. —Melissa Febos, author of The Dry Season and Girlhood, winner of the National Book Critics Circle AwardAn unforgettable love story about sex, art, and identity in 1600s Amsterdam.We don’t choose our obsessions; for better or worse, they reveal themselves to us.At age eight, Gerta Pieters is dressed as a boy and put to work in the service of the Oosterwijcks, a genteel Dutch family. When Gerta catches the eye of the young Maria Oosterwijck, Gerta’s asked to accompany her to Amsterdam, where Maria will study under a noteworthy Dutch artist.In Amsterdam, Maria rises in the ranks of society as a prodigy of still life painting. From the shadows, Gerta watches her ascension and learns to make herself invaluable to Maria in more ways than one. As their relationship evolves, Gerta may come to be more intrinsic to Maria’s personal life—and her art—than even she could have imagined.Inspired by the little that is known about skilled still life painter Maria van Oosterwijck’s life, I Am You is a love story, a meditation on gender, and an ode to artistic creation. Victoria Redel’s novel brings to life the copious spoils of Amsterdam’s Golden Age, and the perils that lay hidden within them for women like Maria and Gerta.