If January starts with such a brilliant book then I am hoping that all of 2025 will be an amazing reading year.

I fell in love with all the main characters in this book, even the irascible Tata. The writing was so vivid that I could feel the heat of the French summer and smell all of the food that was being painted. The art was described so vividly that I thought this was a book fictionalising a 'real' artist and was already half planning a trip to the National Gallery.
I very much liked how the trauma of WW1 was woven into the book, and how the bravery of all the characters involved was showcased. It was also refreshing that the book ended before the 2nd world war and the occupation of France, the tight timeline really worked for me.

With thanks to NetGalley and John Murray Press for the advanced copy to review.

Historical fiction isn’t usually my thing, but the description of this book and the cover drew me in.

Let me firstly say the writing is exquisite, so many gorgeous descriptions that completely transport you into the world the author is building.

The story was captivating, at first I thought it would be a run of the mill love story but the journey we’re taken on is truly representative of every woman who’s ever had to suppress a part of herself for someone else.


A beautiful novel that I really enjoyed, and an absolute masterclass in writing.

A really compelling historical character focused novel that hooks you throughout. The story is from the points of view of Joseph and Ettie, and the artist Tata who connects them. I liked how the points of view keep flitting between the two as it keeps some pace to the book. The book is set just after the First World War in the south of France over one summer and you can really feel the heat and tension build throughout. I really enjoyed it and found myself gripped by the story. Would highly recommend to anyone who enjoys history or art, but also to people who like a character study.

1920 Provence and Joseph, a young art columnist from England arrives at the home of reclusive artist Edouard Tartuffe, thinking he’s been granted an interview. He finds a grumpy, white bearded eccentric who is not happy to see him, and his shy young niece Ettie who he depends upon.

So you may be thinking, is this one of those novels? Is our wrong heroine going to be rescued from her claustrophobic life? Well let me tell you, young Ettie does not need rescuing and (no spoilers here) she’s found a way to show the world her talents.

The characters in this debut - Joseph, Tartuffe and Ettie - are so exquisitely drawn, and the back stories are wonderful. However Ettie is the star of the show. The art, the food, the descriptions- it’s all so vivid. A book hasn’t moved me this much in a long time. If you loved Sarah Winman’s Still Life, I think you’ll love this. It may be half the length, but boy does it pack a punch.

Beautiful, tense, sensuous, edible, enthralling, and mind-opening. This was absolutely delicious and delicately poignant at the same time, from the simmering descriptions of Southern France to the tender exploration of hearts and minds in the aftermath of World War I. With a twisty, gripping story and a spiky but fascinating heroine, it's a page turner that also gives you time to think new thoughts: about who really makes art, about how women are forced to occupy unexpected spaces, and about freedom. Thanks to Netgalley and John Murray for an eARC. Can't wait to get my hands on a physical copy.

The story of The Artist is in fact two stories. The first is told from Joseph's perspective. The second from Ettie's.

Joseph is a failed art student turned art journalist and Ettie is a woman who has been denied attending art school by her artist uncle who claims that women are not allowed to learn at the académie. Instead, her uncle, Tartuffe (Tata) keeps her trapped in their secluded house by emotionally manipulating her and she becomes a sort of living background to his artistic endeavours when she is the one who makes his art possible. She orders the supplies, she buys the food, she commissions the frames and she is the one that invites Joseph to their house in the Provance.

And while Joseph gets painted by the great Tartuffe and tries to gain insight into the master to finish an article about him, a tender love story develops between himself and Ettie. Joseph learns to reassess the quiet woman until he sees her for who she truly is. And Ettie is far more than she appears to be.

Thanks for the advance copy!

P.S.: I am sure a lot of people will like the story, but I grew up in a family with artists and didn't quite connect with Tata or Ettie the way I would have liked to. They aren't nearly "eccentric" enough if that makes sense. Or maybe my family is too eccentric. Either way, there was a disconnect there that I couldn't overcome.

Compelling and alluring, Steed’s debut novel is a sensory delight. She adds layers of richness to her prose weaving a narrative that is so steeped in colours, textures, and the complex emotions that whirl within the three main characters.

Spilt in over three parts — The Painter, The Writer, and The Forger, the story is told by the alternative voices of Joseph and Ettie open up the conversation of what is an artist and does the hand that created the mesmerising stroke on the canvas matter more if it is by a renowned painter or an unknown one?

Edouard Tartuffe is the reclusive successful painter who lives with his niece, Ettie in a dilapidated farmhouse in Provence. Uncle and niece live in companionable silence; he paints and suns himself while eating honey, and she works as his assistant, housekeeper, cook, cleaner, correspondent, and more. The loud silence is broken when Joseph, a writer finds himself, covered in dust and sweat at the door of their farmhouse, uncertain of his welcome despite a letter inviting him so.

Thus begins the torrid summer of simmering discoveries and realisations as they circle around each other, building up to an intoxicating climax of re-learning what truly is creativity, possession, and freedom.

Steeds’ prose is so rich, that one can imagine the heat of the summer — ‘Each day is hotter than the last, the air so thick Joseph wants to chew it’, the painful loneliness and helplessness of Sylvette — ‘She was a small, lonely child, and having no real power would let her to invent her own power. It was the power of mud potions, and silent incantations and touching things with her hands’ and the artistry of descriptions — ‘He throws the ink pen and one hundred black exclamation marks spatter across the floor’

There is of course the supplementary developing plot of a mystery or two, and Steeds excels at tying it with the main narrative, never not missing a line nor pushing us to guess at it. Instead, she slowly guides us through its eventual outcome and the result is more of a satisfied smile than a loud “Aha!”

Something I felt when I turned the last page on Sylvette’s story, because it is after all her story even though it begins with Joseph wanting to profile Edouard, the artist.

Thank you to NetGalley and John Murray Press for providing me with an ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Lucy Steeds opens The Artist with a dynamite prologue. In just a couple of pages, we are shown in a public gallery, a grand painting and the person who claims to have destroyed it over 30 years before. From there we are taken to the baking heat of Provence in 1920. Joseph, an aspiring English journalist, has pinned all his hopes on interviewing the reclusive, misanthropic tyrant of an artist Tartuffe whose niece Ettie keeps house and facilitates his work. He paints in the studio but she cleans it, supplies it, prepares canvases, commissions frames; she is forever clearing up his mess and she is always watching. The price of living with a genius is high. His fragile ego will not accept competition.
I really liked the set-up of the three characters living in the house together over a stifling summer. Into this uneasy coexistence in the middle of nowhere come crashing uninvited guests (in a yellow car; a nice touch). After this injection of the outside world and a small bombshell of information, Ettie wonders what else her uncle has lied to her about. Things are revealed in their own time; some expected, some not. Through the person of Joseph’s brother Rupert, the fallout from the Great War is shown vividly, compassionately.
I have enjoyed novels based on real subjects like this before, but I do have a tendency to get sidetracked and find out which parts really happened and which are fiction. As Lucy Steeds has invented the main characters here, albeit placing them in a world of real people and places, I was able to take it all at face value and enjoy it for itself. Along the way she writes beautifully about art, how it makes the viewer feel rather than what it means.

Thank you to John Murray, publisher and NetGalley for an advance copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. Honestly - I loved it!
I have an amateur interest in art and artists, so the core story of reclusive artist Edouard Tartuffe and the mystery and secretiveness around why he became so intrigued me. I really enjoyed the exploration of the creative forces inspiring the artist, as journalist Joseph attempts to understand this. The character Ettie, Edouard’s niece seems simply portrayed initially, then one begins to wonder if there is more to her than meets the eye. I found the novel to be a very ‘gentle’ read, it flowed nicely with a satisfying amount of intrigue and mystery. I very strongly disliked Edouard, really liked Joseph and his naivety, and felt a bit disconnected from Ettie - I think it a sign of a very good novel when I react to characters in an evolving way. I highly recommend this book. I’ll look out for more from this author.

A wholly complete, engaging and satisfying story of a hot summer in France when 3 people are tied together in an isolated farmhouse soon after the first world War. The artist, genius and monster; the shadowy niece who attends to all the artist's needs sublimating her own and the young art critic and model for a painting who has his own demons. This is a beautiful, surprising, passionate tale and an ending that fits.

I absolutely loved this book. Beautifully written, it slowly unfolded until I was engrossed, impatient to see how it all played out.
Joseph, a writer, is sent from London to discover the secrets of the famous artist Tartuffe, who lives a reclusive life in the south of France. However, it soon becomes clear that his niece, Ettie, is the real person of interest and the story is hers. The reader gradually learns her history, her secrets and her desires in this compelling novel.
The sense of place, time, atmosphere and landscape were all brilliantly evoked, and I was drawn into Ettie's world, thoroughly invested in her story.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an advance copy.

Although one of the main protagonists is an absolute monster (so I had to suspend my disbelief in how he is tolerated), the trick behind scenes foisted by a young girl who's mostly been bullied and belittled all her life is kind of ingenious. I was wholly engaged, and keen to get back to it, holding myself back from jumping to the end .. but you should wait for it too! The artist and the young woman and an aspiring young journalist are in the house they share as virtual recluses. Very accomplished engagements, and we begin to understand the constraints and personal lives impact on the young people up to the big secret's exposure. Wonderful!!!

Not published until 2025 I suggest that you grab this exquisite historical novel when you can. Set in a remote farmhouse in France in 1920, it follows quiet, watchful Ettie, the niece of a legendary artist, and ambitious journalist Joseph. A story with depth, sensuous writing and near perfect pace.

Thank you to NetGalley and publishers John Murray for this advanced copy.

In post-WW1, Joseph Adelaide is a budding London journalist with an aspiration to write about the famous, reclusive French painter Tartuffe. The artist is not exactly welcoming his visitor even though he has sent him a note to come to the Provence. He suggests an arrangement where Joseph will be tolerated to stay and write in exchange for sitting for him. Tartuffe, his shy niece Ettie and Joseph are the only housemates in this household of awkward relationship. A languid, feverish and limpid, secretive little world.

You can smell the baking heat of Southern France, the turps and the olive trees, the crumbling plaster walls and the decaying mess of dusty artist props.

How much does artistic genius allow a person to control and maltreat those who are permitted to be within their perimeter? Are those people overawed by that sheer genius or just cowering before a moody, egotistic despot?

At first, this book shyly touches you, but soon scoops you up into its folds.
I found myself happily returning to Tata, Ettie and Josephe of an evening, savouring the book’s poetry: “The lonely church bell strikes three in the morning. Time is rolling onwards. Like an eye slowly closing, the night shortens by degrees.”

I wanted to shake up Ettie and tell her to finally stand up for herself. I wanted to shin-kick Tartuffe for his moodiness. I wanted Josephe to grow up. But I needn’t have worried about any of them.

This is a gentle story about a gentle young man, Joseph, who travels to rural France to write about the reclusive painter, Tartuffe. There he becomes a model for Tartuffe’s latest painting and falls in love with Ettie, the painter’s niece. Lucy Steeds immerses you in the heat and slow days of rural France in 1920 - you can feel the languor and taste and smell the food. Tartuffe is an odd, controlling genius who flies into rages and sulks at the slightest excuse. Ettie hides in plain sight, cooking and cleaning for her uncle and making sure that his art supplies are at hand for him to create his masterpieces , however she is hiding a secret and this is tantalisingly revealed throughout the novel. I really enjoyed this book and will definitely be looking out for Tartuffe’s paintings!

PROVENCE, 1920

Ettie moves through the remote farmhouse, silently creating the conditions that make her uncle's artistic genius possible.

Joseph, an aspiring journalist, has been invited to the house. He believes he'll make his name by interviewing the reclusive painter, the great Edouard Tartuffe.

But everyone has their secrets. And, under the cover of darkness, Ettie has spent years cultivating hers.

Over this sweltering summer, everyone's true colours will be revealed.

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I was drawn to this book first of all because of the Provence setting, but then also the premise. And it delivered! It's a really gripping novel and I'd recommend it.

This book is an absolute triumph. I was completely immersed in the setting and period. It reminded me of Maggie O'Farrell Joanne Harris or Tracy Chevalier. Just beautiful and so evocative. The use of language is skilful and felt naturalistic yet stylish.

The characterisation was really deft and accomplished with clever psychological insight. I especially loved the haunting references to the aftermath of WW1. The glimpses of artistic process and the workings of the art world were utterly convincing.

One of my favourite reads in a long time.

I was intrigued by the impressive reviews this debut has received, and I was not disappointed. The Artist is an astounding historical novel: vivid and compelling, the characters and imagery sing from the page.

The opening quote from John Berger's Ways of Seeing really sets the tone here: this is a story of creativity and power, artistry and ownership. But it is also a fantastic character study of the three central protagonists, and I found myself utterly immersed in their world. Steeds' prose is magnetic, perfectly rendering the heady summer atmosphere deep in the Provence countryside, which smoulders with passion, intrigue and tension.

A distinctive and memorable debut, The Artist is one to look out for in 2025.

This book is a slow burner, expressed in vivid colour and completed in layers like a classic in oils! Set just after the First World War in Provence, an aspiring journalist called Joseph is invited to visit a famous painter, Edouard Tartuffe who lives in isolation on the edge of a French village with only his niece, Ettie, for company.

The shockwaves of war are still felt. Joseph was a conscientious objector while his brother who was not survives as a shellshocked patient in an institution. Ettie, who already had problems with who she was, worked as a nurse in French hospital and carries the scars from there. Tartuffe is simply self-centred, blustering and focused on his work but is totally dependent on Ettie.

It makes for an interesting triangle. Joseph is an outsider while Ettie fears the outside world but, slowly, Joseph works himself into the dysfunctional family as he gains the confidence of Tartuffe and explores his creative processes. At the same time, there is a slow reveal about his and Ettie’s pasts, and things which are not what they seem about the present arrangements.

It’s exquisitely written in its description of the colours, the aromas and the shimmering heat of Provence and there is an inevitability about the eventual coming together of Joseph and Ettie.

A lot else happens in the book and even Peggy Guggenheim pops up one point. Ettie has to carry a great deal of the plot baggage and there are some unexpected twists and turns but the author just about holds it all together and it is a fascinating and entertaining read with several unexpected endings. It is highly recommended!

I thoroughly enjoyed reading this story - each character was beautifully written and felt like a unique person. I felt as if I was also in the French countryside, sitting on the farmhouse terrace or in the studio.