Fall under the spell of a master craftsman in this breathless French coming of age novel. This is the story of Paula, a once-floundering French student who stumbles into her calling almost by accident, and enrolls to study trompe l’oeil, or “the art of illusion,” in Brussels. In her distinctive impressionistic style, de Kerangal invites us to accompany Paula as she throws herself into her craft and learns to flawlessly imitate rare and expensive materials with her brushstrokes—marble, tortoiseshell, the heart grain of oak. As Paula finds work abroad as a decorative painter—in studios and on film sets in Paris, Moscow, and Italy—she wrestles with the meaning of her work, and what to do about the relationships she left behind. To sound like a total nerd: I couldn’t get enough of de Kerangal’s voice.

Nancy Klinke for the The New York Times Book Review calls this "A slim, bountiful, beautifully written (and gorgeously translated) 'Portrait of the Chef as a Young Man.'"

Maylis de Kerangal has been one of my favorites ever since I stumbled upon Painting Time (still my favorite of her work). This novella follows two fugitives on the Trans-Siberian Railway: twenty-year-old Aliocha is desperate to get out of Russian military service but all of his attempts have failed; Hélène is a French woman who also wants to flee Siberia. Together they’ll attempt to escape despite language barriers and the ever-present danger of being caught. Translated from the French by Jessica Moore.

From the publisher: "In the depths of a winter's night, the heart of Simon Limbeau is resting, readying itself for the day to come. In a few hours' time, just before six, his alarm will go off and he will venture into the freezing dawn, drive down to the beach, and go surfing with his friends. A trip he has made a hundred times and yet, today, the heart of Simon Limbeau will encounter a very different course. But for now, the black-box of his body is free to leap, swell, melt and sink, just as it has throughout the years of Simon's young life. 5.50 a.m. This is his heart. And here is its story."