Featured Book: The Muralist by B. A. Shapiro

Sara Trucksess

B.A. Shapiro’s newest novel, The Muralist, revisits America’s most famous mid-century artists with a fresh “what-if” perspective, creating an alternate reality for art historical greats Mark Rothko, Jackson Pollack and Lee Krasner. In this novel, the entire landscape of these artists’ works revolves around an unknown fictional artist, heroine Alizee Benoit. Taking a very specific moment in art history and turning it into a compelling fictional storyline, Shapiro has created a heartwarming mystery that unravels over the course of several generations.

The story is set, as so many good art novels tend to be, just before the pivotal Nazi invasion in Europe. Fictional artist Benoit is a Jewish French emigree, living in New York and working for the WPA/FAP. Author Shapiro highlights the benefits and inherent issues of this government funded arts program as Benoit, her lover Rothko, and friends Pollack and Krasner are paid for their work but are limited in their creative ventures. Unexpecte…