B.A. Shapiro presents "The Lost Masterpiece"

If you would prefer to buy your ticket by phone, you may call Wellesley Books at 781-431-1160.

About ticketing:

• Admission to the event is $5.
• To purchase the book with your admission, choose Admission + Book and we will waive your admission fee.
• If you decide to purchase the book at the event, we will discount your book purchase by $5.

Please note that you must purchase your copy of the book from Wellesley Books in order to have the author sign it at the event.

Please also note that we cannot issue ticket refunds within 48 hours of the event.

ABOUT THE BOOK

"With sharp prose and thrilling plot twists, The Lost Masterpiece is an exquisite feat of storytelling. Shapiro renders the range and nuance of young Morisot’s bold creative vision in an exhilarating novel of restless passion, family secrets, and the power of art to transcend time." —Dawn Tripp, author

Stretching from the late-nineteenth century to the present day, The Lost Masterpieceis wrapped around an enigmatic and powerful painting, Party on the Seine. Stolen by the Nazis. Believed to be destroyed for almost a century. Possibly haunted by the anguished spirit of Impressionist painter Berthe Morisot. Survivor of a flood, an earthquake and a fire when all the other artworks around it were destroyed. What secrets does it hold? What power?

When Tamara Rubin inherits the valuable Party on the Seine, created by the famous ancestor she never knew she had—Edouard Manet—she also inherits a deep history and mystery. As the painting begins to metamorphose into darker and more terrifying versions of itself, Tamara’s life is upended. Who was her great-great-great-great-grandmother Berthe Morisot? What wounds, riddles and resentments plagued her, and what lengths will the spirit of Berthe go in order to enact her revenge?

The Lost Masterpiece is story of love, adultery, betrayal, longing, family secrets, and the birth of Impressionism. Set partly in Paris in the late 1800s, the novel explores the life of a female artist when it was completely improper for a woman to paint seriously. Even as Berthe Morisot socialized and shared a studio with Manet, Degas, Renoir, and others, she carried on a passionate affair with Edouard Manet. Shapiro brings Berthe’s world to life, as she traces her work through generations of her descendants and introduces us to a painter as brilliant and original as her male counterparts. Across 150 years of triumphs, struggles, passions, animosities and malevolence, Shapiro does what she always does so brilliantly: she shows us how art can open up our senses and enlarge our world.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

B.A. Shapiro is the award-winning and New York Times bestselling author of ten novels, including The Lost Masterpiece (June 17, 2025), Metropolis, The Collector’s Apprentice, The Muralist and The Art Forger, which won the New England Book Award for Fiction, among other honors. Her books have been selected as Community Reads throughout the country and have been translated into over a dozen languages. She holds a PhD in sociology and has directed research projects for a residential substance abuse facility, worked as a systems analyst/statistician, headed the Boston office of a software development firm, and served as an adjunct professor teaching sociology at Tufts University and creative writing at Northeastern University. She likes writing novels the best. Barbara splits her time between Boston and Naples, Florida.

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