Jo Piazza’s The Parisian Heist is a dual-timeline, dual-perspective novel following two women: Claire, a close friend and colleague of Van Gogh’s sister-in-law who works to champion his art in the late 1800s, and Emma, a young American woman in 1990s Paris who falls in with a family of art dealers and begins uncovering some fraud.
I’ll be honest: I liked both storylines fine without loving either one. Emma never quite grabbed me as a protagonist, and the decision to set the contemporary story in the 90s felt like a workaround rather than a real creative choice, a decision made just because the plot wouldn’t have held together in the age of cell phones. But Stella Swanson, the matriarch of the art-dealing family, was a genuinely fun character to follow whenever she appeared.
What the book does well is place. I read it while I was actually in Paris, which was a delight, but even from your couch it will transport you. The museums, the flea markets, the streets all feel so real and accurate. If you’re a lover of art history or just want a proxy trip to Paris, this the summer read for you.
PS: Thank you to NetGalley and Dutton for providing me with an Advanced Reading Copy.
